History Film / TheFall

Despite winning a slew of "Best Picture" awards, the film only scored mixed-to-positive reviews.

* BittersweetEnding: Both in the reality and in the fantasy. [[spoiler: Alexandria will never see Roy again, but she thinks he's the stuntman in every film see sees.]]

Unable to leave his hospital bed, Roy has a plan: he begins telling Alexandria the most fantastic bandit story ever told. It stars seven heroes -- The Black Bandit, an Italian, an Indian, a Mystic, [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy the ex-slave Otta Benga, Charles Darwin]], and Wallace the Monkey -- on a quest of revenge against the evil Governor Odious. By telling her how exciting it is to go on an adventure and to steal hidden treasure, Roy tries to convince Alexandria to [[spoiler: steal painkillers for him to overdose on]].

* HeyItsThatGuy: Hey, it's [[PushingDaisies the Pie Maker!]] ...And he's mentally unstable!
** Beneath all that make-up, the elderly patient is [[DoctorWho the newest Davros]].

* LargeHam: The Black Bandit. Justified, though, as it is the imagination of a 5-year-old; Roy is played much more naturally.

* {{Mooks}}: Clone after clone after clone of Alexandria's real-life NightmareFuel, the X-ray technician wearing a leather apron, swarming through an M.C. Escher-esque maze (which was not CGI, but filmed at a ''real place'').

* {{Mooks}}: Clone after clone after clone of Alexandria's real-life NightmareFuel, the X-ray technician wearing a leather apron. And when they're all swarming through an M.C. Escher-esque maze (which was not CGI, but filmed at a ''real place'').

* {{Mooks}}: Clone after clone after clone of Alexandria's real-life, the X-ray technician wearing a leather apron. And when they're all swarming through an M.C. Escher-esque maze (which was not CGI, but filmed at a ''real place'').

* DoingItForTheArt: Tarseem funded this mostly with his own money to ensure complete creative control, shot it over multiple continents and locations and ''[[BeyondTheImpossible used solely practical effects with absolutely no CGI whatsoever]].''

* {{Mooks}}: Clone after clone after clone of Alexandria's real-life NightmareFuel, the X-ray technician wearing a leather apron. HighOctaneNightmareFuel when they're all swarming through an M.C. Escher-esque maze (which was not CGI, but filmed at a ''real place'').

But Roy has barely any idea how to talk to young children. And Alexandria is stubborn, hardly speaks English, and still lives by the laws of her own child logic. The story Roy tells is seen entirely through Alexandria's eyes: every character (and prop) in Roy's story is imagined by Alexandria as someone (or something) she's seen in daily life. And it quickly becomes clear that her life so far has been extremely traumatizing. Her fantasy world is cute at first, but turns into a HighOctaneNightmareFuel TearJerker as Roy sinks deeper and deeper into depression. Each time Alexandria makes an innocent mistake, Roy punishes her for it by punishing his characters within the tale. Finally, Alexandria decides that the story isn't safe with Roy, and she takes over the narration herself.

The end result is a ''deeply'' engaging combination of epic fantasy and SceneryPorn, taking its cues from ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' and ''Film/ThePrincessBride''. It's [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids not for kids]].

After winning a slew of "Best Picture" awards, the film continues to score ''extremely'' positive reviews. It was called "magnificent" by RogerEbert and frequently shows up in top 10 lists. Still, it NeedsMoreLove.

A visually (and otherwise) stunning 2006 fantasy film by Tarsem Singh, based on the 1981 Bulgarian pirate story "Yo Ho Ho". The film took four years to shoot, in 26 locations in over 18 countries, and was funded by [[BeingJohnMalkovich Spike Jonze]] and [[FightClub David Fincher]]. '''The trailer [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil spoils]] most of its plot twists.'''

Unable to leave his hospital bed, Roy has a plan: he begins telling Alexandria the most fantastic bandit story ever told. It stars seven heroes -- The Black Bandit, an Italian, an Indian, a Mystic, an ex-slave Otta Benga, [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Charles Darwin]], and Wallace the Monkey -- on a quest of revenge against the evil Governor Odious. By telling her how exciting it is to go on an adventure and to steal hidden treasure, Roy tries to convince Alexandria to [[spoiler: steal painkillers for him to overdose on]].

Unable to leave his hospital bed, Roy has a plan: he begins telling Alexandria the most fantastic bandit story ever told. It stars seven heroes -- The Black Bandit, an Italian, an Indian, a Mystic, an ex-slave Otta Benga, [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy , Charles Darwin]], and Wallace the Monkey -- on a quest of revenge against the evil Governor Odious. By telling her how exciting it is to go on an adventure and to steal hidden treasure, Roy tries to convince Alexandria to [[spoiler: steal painkillers for him to overdose on]].

Unable to leave his hospital bed, Roy has a plan: he begins telling Alexandria the most fantastic bandit story ever told. It stars seven heroes -- The Black Bandit, an Italian, an Indian, a Mystic, [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Ota Benga, Charles Darwin]], and Wallace the Monkey -- on a quest of revenge against the evil Governor Odious. By telling her how exciting it is to go on an adventure and to steal hidden treasure, Roy tries to convince Alexandria to [[spoiler: steal painkillers for him to overdose on]].

* FridgeBrilliance: The more you look at the fantasy part of the story, the more you realise exactly how perfectly it fits a child's imagination of the story she's being told.

* [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids What Do You Mean It's Not For Kids]]:The reviewers like to compare this film with ''Film/ThePrincessBride'', without mentioning the amounts of violence and adult themes that this film had. Not to mention that the narrator of "the delightful fairy tale" wants the little girl [[spoiler: assist him to kill himself]].

Unable to leave his hospital bed, Roy has a plan: he begins telling Alexandria the most fantastic bandit story ever told. It stars seven heroes -- The Blue Bandit, an Italian, an Indian, a Mystic, [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Ota Benga, Charles Darwin]], and Wallace the Monkey -- on a quest of revenge against the evil Governor Odious. By telling her how exciting it is to go on an adventure and to steal hidden treasure, Roy tries to convince Alexandria to [[spoiler: steal painkillers for him to overdose on]].

* XMeetsY: ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' meets ''Webcomic/AxeCop''.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the-fall-20080313114127784_640w.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Charles Darwin.]]

* InnocentInaccurate: Alexandria's family pretty clearly had to immigrate to the United States because of a pogrom of some sort - they appear to be Romanian Jews - but when Roy tries to find out more, all she says is that "angry people" were responsible.

Unable to leave his hospital bed, Roy has a plan: he begins telling Alexandria the most fantastic bandit story ever told. It stars seven heroes -- The Blue Bandit, an Italian, an Indian, a Mystic, [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Otta Benga, Charles Darwin]], and Wallace the Monkey -- on a quest of revenge against the evil Governor Odious. By telling her how exciting it is to go on an adventure and to steal hidden treasure, Roy tries to convince Alexandria to [[spoiler: steal painkillers for him to overdose on]].

* AnnoyingArrows: [[spoiler: The ones that kill Otta Benga barely pierce him.]]

** Kinda...there was some CGI work done to remove railings and bystanders in some shots, and the [[spoiler:butterfly Wallace chases, and the arrows hitting Otta]] have a CGI look to them. Still, the overwhelming majority of the film was done practically, which is still an amazing achievement.

** TheBigGuy: The Indian and Otto Benga.

* TheVoiceless: The Indian only speaks one or two words during the whole movie. He speaks when [[spoiler: he cuts the rope (killing himself and a handful of the mooks), saying "''Up!''" (according to the subtitles)]]. Otto Benga is almost this.

* [[spoiler:CreatorBreakdown]]: [[spoiler:Roy, at the end of the story, killing nearly all of the character's off.]]

* AnnoyingArrows: [[spoiler: the ones that kill Otta Denga barely pierce him.]]

* AnnoyingArrows: [[the ones that kill Otta Denga barely pierce him.

* XMeetsY: ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' meets ''AxeCop''.

* BadassSpaniard: Odious. The Black Bandit starts out at this, until he becomes French.