It's a crazy film. Tarsem Singh's The Fall is a children's fairytale, never mind the fact that it's rated R. Shot all over the world, it's got candy colored action scenes featuring masked men in ridiculous, garish costumes. What, I thought, initially, am I watching? And why? But my cynicism was steadily broken down, completely undone by a five-year-old Romanian actress named Catinca Untaru.

Introducing The Completely Disarming Catinca Untaru

It goes like this: a little migrant working girl named Alexandria (Untura) breaks her arm falling from an orange tree. When the story starts, she's got the full run of a 1920's Los Angeles Victorian hospital. She's beyond adorable. Her broken arm is in a heavy cast. She wears a white nightgown and a gray cardigan that droops off her shoulder. She's missing her front teeth. Her cheeks are ridiculously round. She speaks English with a heavy accident. The young Untura behaves like a child who is not acting. Untara smiles unexpectedly, she laughs at inappropriate moments, she demands things. She also makes delicious commentary.

Alexandria meets Roy Walker (Lee Pace), a paralyzed stunt man who lures the little girl to his bedside with promises of a story. The man, a charmer in his own right, wants morphine and he seduces the little girl with tantalizing episodes of a fantastical story. And I mean a fantastical story.

In Roy's "epic tale of love and revenge," a masked Black Bandit sets out on a dangerous mission to kill Governor Odious (Daniel Caltagirone). A strange cast of characters accompany the Bandit, including Charles Darwin who gets inspiration from a smart monkey, a one legged man, and a regal black prince, who wears a tall, bejeweled crown and little else. There is, naturally, a regal princess (Justine Waddell). There's also a swimming elephant.

A Fantastical Story That Steadily Sucks You In

Things only start to get good when the real Alexandria becomes a character in this outrageous fiction -- replete with her own matching bandit outfit and mite-sized bandit mask. As the film progresses, it becomes clear that the stunt man's elaborate tale is based on his own tragic story. His mood grows morbid, he takes the Black Bandit to sadder and sadder places, and Alexandria's growing distress turns into palpable panic.

By this point, my initial disdain was gone. Maybe Tarsem Singh's story bordered on preposterous, but the audacious filmmaker had sucked me in. Where was the girl's deserved fairytale ending? Why wouldn't Roy give it to her? The selfish, selfish bastard. Alexandria's distress, it had become my own.

Starring: Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddell, Daniel Caltagirone, Leo Bill
Directed by: Tarsem Singh
Produced by: Tommy Turtle, Ajit Singh, Marcus Morton
Running Time: 1 hr. 57 min.
Release Date: May 9th, 2008 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for some violent images.
Distributors: Roadside Attractions