The Fall (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:97
Fresh:58
Rotten:39
Average Rating:6.2/10
Consensus: More visually elaborate than the fragmented story can sometimes support, The Fall walks the line between labor of love and filmmaker self-indulgence.
Theatrical Release:May 9, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $2,099,067
Synopsis: Award-winning music video, commercial and film director Tarsem Singh (The Cell) creates a moving and seamless blending of mundane life in a 1915 Los Angeles hospital with a visually sumptuous... [More]
Reviews for The Fall
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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A long, long trip through the museum Full Review |
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1.5/4 |
I wonder if it's unforgivable heresy to say The Cell is badly underestimated and due for revisionism while The Fall, despite its relative obscurity, is badly overestimated. Full Review |
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Click to read the article Full Review |
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...a movie that not only expected me to pay attention, it assumed that I could. Full Review |
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The girl and the hospital patients and staff also turn up in his improvised adventure, extravagantly garbed by costume designer Eiko Ishioka. Full Review |
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4/4 |
Something like a Sir David Lean epic crossed with trippy offshoots of tall tales of Zorro, Ali Baba and Pecos Bill rolled into one, The Fall is a sun-kissed companion to Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. A brilliant follow-up from Tarsem Singh. Full Review |
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A- |
Click to read the article Full Review |
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3.5/5 |
Tarsem has found a home for his endlessly unique visions, and (wouldn't you know?) it's beyond artifice and stealing toward art. Full Review |
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The story Roy tells is involving enough and so beautifully shot (see how many locations you can name) that it's worth seeing for that alone. Full Review |
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3.5/5 |
One of the most beautiful things ever put on the big screen. On the other hand, the story is far too thin for adults, and far too dark for kids. Full Review |
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2/5 |
The film may look a treat in a static kind of way but the whole is a piece of turgid pictorialism that ends up unbearably dull. Full Review |
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1/5 |
While nice to look at, it’s also a very tedious slice of magical realism lacking in tension, suspense and, indeed, magic. Full Review |
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4/5 |
Beguiling, befuddling, brilliant. It’s sure to divide audiences but, for all its ocular opulence and wild fantasy, at heart The Fall is a tender, touching tale about childhood, hope and the power of story. Full Review |
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4/5 |
But The Fall defies low expectations, proving the director can now partner his exquisite pictures with a ripping yarn. Full Review |
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The Fall is hugely ambitious, but ultimately it's just an intriguing folly. Full Review |
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2/5 |
Does The Fall amount to anything more than a vast sugar-frosted folly? I'm not convinced it does, although its wanton extravagance is not without charm. Singh has money to burn and he builds a pretty bonfire. Full Review |
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3/5 |
The visuals that illustrate the fairytale fantasy are extraordinary. But the film has none of the menacing brilliance of Pan’s Labyrinth. The result is a triumph of style over talent. Full Review |
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3.5/5 |
A must-watch for lovers of the strange and unusual, this visually ravishing oddball drama has sequences of genuine beauty and charm - even if it won't be to everyone's taste. Full Review |
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3/6 |
The pacing drags and the clichéd tussle between childhood innocence and adult disillusionment can only go one way. Better to experience it than think about it, fair to say. Full Review |
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3/5 |
Tarsem’s film is breathtakingly imaginative, but at times you’re left feeling like you’ve eaten too many sweets. Full Review |
CommentLatest News for The Fall
December 08, 2008:
Roger Ebert Ranks 2008's 20 Best Films 
December isn't even halfway over yet, and many of us have already had our fill of year-end lists -- but Roger Ebert's list of the 20 best films of 2008 is one worth making an... More...
October 06, 2008:
Exclusive: The Fall - Tarsem's Visual Companion - Part 2
Its otherworldly story split critics down the middle, but none can argue with the power of its imagery. Continuing our exclusive look at the stunning visuals of Tarsem's The... More...
October 03, 2008:
Exclusive: The Fall - Tarsem's Visual Companion - Part 1
Its otherworldly story split critics down the middle, but none can argue with the power of its imagery. Opening in the UK this week, Tarsem's The Fall is one of the year's most... More...
October 03, 2008:
UK Critics Consensus: How To Lose Friends & Alienate People Does Just That; Whilst Brideshead Revisited Is Resisted
In the UK cinemas this week we have two literary adaptations with Simon Pegg as an irksome hack in How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, and Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited... More...
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