A Road Less Travelled

I think I like small stories. I can appreciate stories that are epic or at least big, stories that encompass the rise and fall of nations and civilizations. But only so far as they are made up of small stories. Stories of normal people caught up in abnormal events. People who’s stories are connected with other stories to make up a big patchwork quilt of tales. My favorite part of The Lord of The Rings is Frodo and Sam walking up Mount Doom. My favorite school year of history was the year I learned through reading biographies. I like small stories that connect together to make something bigger than any of it’s parts. And I like whimsical and fantastical tales. Which makes The Fall perfect for me.

It’s as if this movie was made just for me. There are two parts of the story that the movie cuts back and forth between. The first part is the interaction between Alexandria, a young Mexican girl in the hospital for a broken arm and Roy, a stunt man who’s latest stunt broke his back and his heart. She wanders into his room one day and to make her feel better he starts telling her a story which is larger than life and more vibrantly colored. The scenery is vast and sweeping; the heroes are dashing and brave. Our heroes ride across mountains and deserts, fighting their way through ranks of evil soldiers on their way to the capital city to fight the evil Governor Odious. The characters, the landscape and the action are bright, colorful and larger than life.

But then the movie cuts back to Roy’s hospital bed where he and Alexandria are sitting. It’s small, cozy. Just two broken people spending time together. And this is where the meat of the story happens. For all it’s grandeur The Fall is a simple story about a man who’s lost all desire to live and the little girl who befriends him when she doesn’t understand just what’s wrong with him. The quiet moments of friendship are the most beautiful in the movie. The movie would cut back and forth between the story and the real world, usually at the most inconvenient time, and often at the cut the real world and the story world bled into each other for a moment.

I watched The Fall while I was babysitting for the Peiffers. They came home right at the end of the movie and Jana asked me what I was watching and how was it. I just stared at her, stumbling over my words. There were some parts the had me holding my stomach, almost crying with the characters on the screen as they walked through darkness. There were other parts that made me laugh or say “Ooooooo” at how beautiful everything was. It had all of the depth and simplicity of a small, intimate story and the visuals of an epic. It was beautiful and painful and I want to see it again. Very soon.