And they lived colorfully ever after

The Fall

Crit (2006)

OK, here's the deal: when someone uses the adjective poetic, it's always meant as a compliment, right? But poetry's not just Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson. Poetry's also Colley Cibber and Rod McKuen and Burma Shave signs, right? The Fall is undeniably poetic; it's not undeniably good. One blurb I saw on rottentomatoes.com said something like "a feast for the eyes, famine for the brain," and I can't do much better than that.

The one interesting element has to do with narrative--not the story-within-a-story per se, which is pretty banal and clichéd (though nice to look at, it must be admitted), but the notion, familiar to all fiction writers, I suspect, of the tyranny of the narrative, the fact that the story assumes a momentum of its own and will go where it will go, regardless of the wishes of the storyteller or the audience. Hey, I didn't say it was a brilliant element, just that it was about the only thing to think about.

Catinca Untaru, nine years old when the film was made and an acting novice and natural, also contributes to making the film worth watching.

Trailers

Nothing new, but I feel compelled to report that, in contrast to my usual increasing impatience with trailers the 50th or 100th time I have to see 'em, the Mamma Mia trailer is growing on me; I may be up to a 3 on the film now.