THE FALL
RYAN: I couldn’t wait to see “The Fall” for two reasons: 1) it looks like a fairy tale and 2) it stars Lee Pace, whom we love.
CAROLINE: Not only is he gorgeous, but he was so fabulous in “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” earlier this year. I was hoping he’d have a British accent in this movie too, but alas he did not.
RYAN: I don’t even need him to talk; I just like looking at him. And we love him on TV’s “Pushing Daisies.” This movie was great. I love anything that starts out with “Once upon a time.” It takes place in the early days of film, and it reminded me a lot of the Alfonso Cuaron version of “A Little Princess” in that it had a fairy tale story paralleling real life.
CAROLINE: I saw this trailer in a theater and was so amazed by it. I couldn’t believe all the colors and the exotic locations. I was like, “What is this movie?” It looked so spectacular, and I was trying to figure out where they had shot it. Turns out they filmed it in 18 countries.
RYAN: Yeah, and it took four years.
CAROLINE: I was also intrigued by the fact that it’s presented by David Fincher and Spike Jonze. Clearly, they must have seen this movie and fallen in love with it and wanted to lend their support. The only other movie the director, Tarsem, had done before was that random J. Lo movie, “The Cell.”
RYAN: Basically, this movie contains a fairy tale that is told by Lee Pace to a young girl who’s in the same hospital as him.
CAROLINE: I loved how they wove the fantasy aspect in and out of real life using people from the hospital as the fairy tale characters. It was kind of like “The Wizard of Oz” in that way.
RYAN: The little girl has limited knowledge of the world, and we see her imagination of his words in a very fantastical way. It’s so brightly colored and beautiful, but then it’s sprinkled with elements of her real life. It’s very cleverly done.
CAROLINE: The little girl is absolutely adorable. I loved her accent, and she’s a little bit chunky and her front teeth are missing. There were a couple scenes between her and Lee where I don’t think she was even acting. They were so funny and cute that they seemed unscripted.
RYAN: And if they were scripted, then this kid could give Abigail Breslin and Dakota Fanning a run for their money. There’s also a cute monkey in it that I liked even better than the chimp in “Speed Racer.”
CAROLINE: Can we just get back to Lee Pace for a minute? He’s really a fine specimen of manhood. There’s one scene where he takes off his mask and he has black eyeliner eye on and he didn’t look annoyingly club kid-ish/Pete Wentzian at all. He just looked out and out hot.
RYAN: At that moment, I married him in my heart.
CAROLINE: I loved the costumes, but I would have liked even more of the amazing scenery. Some of the beautiful settings went by in fast montages and I wanted them to linger.
RYAN: This movie comes in at almost two hours but it never dragged for me. I was swept up in it the whole time. Bottom line?
CAROLINE: I liked this movie. It’s only out in limited release, and honestly, we barely knew it was out ‘cuz it’s barely being promoted at all. If you like Lee Pace, you’ll enjoy it but I can’t really say it’s a must-see on the big screen because most people won’t even have the chance to see it till it comes out on DVD.
RYAN: It is a must-see in the theater if you can though, especially if you like fantasy and fairy tales. Lee Pace is gorgeous, as are some of the other men, and the movie really showcases the male physique very nicely. It’s an excellent movie and I loved it.