Critics reviews

A stunning achievement in cinematic brilliance, a spectacle of exceptional visual majesty that thrives through its incredible litany of locations and its bold and breathtaking costume design. The epitome of visceral fantasy splendor on the screen... The Fall is a hidden masterpiece of the form that stands as a must-see gem for all fantasy lovers and film aficionados.

The reason The Fall stayed in my mind for many years was its stunning visuals... The eye-popping colour grade takes the bloody reds, emerald greens, ocean blues and rich black and gold detail of the costumes (and real-life locations) and transforms them into a surreal dreamscape. It’s so vivid to a point where ‘vivid’ becomes an insufficient descriptor.

The Fall captures the beauty of storytelling with dazzling cinematography and fantastical setpieces that are made even more remarkable in this restoration. Compared to the superhero schlock of today, The Fall remains exceptional for the strength of its imagination and the director’s dedication to visual spectacle.

There’s something immense about the production, about the visual splendor, and about the reserved, ultimately sturdy emotional payoff.

[The Fall] is certainly worth noticing, with its Gilliamesque surrealism, and its setting in Rajasthan, north-western India, offers wonderful landscapes... although I have to admit that in general the film’s rather placid, stately, fantasy style can be exasperatingly inert.

All shot without green screen or CGI effects, The Fall is the kind of film that, if it were released today, would be heralded as a masterpiece.

Tarsem’s beautiful, fanciful epic merges the storytelling fantasy of The Princess Bride with the maximalist quest narratives of Jodorowsky.

[A] bold and beautiful mess of a masterpiece, as intimate and personal as it is impossibly grand.

There is no mistaking that The Fall is a feat of filmmaking, one whose power continues to grow with each passing year... There is still nothing else like it.

[The Fall] is a riot of colour and action, a joyful marriage of the director’s visionary style and the extraordinary art direction. The fantasy sequences are simply beautiful, using the world’s stage as a backdrop and rarely resorting to cheap visual effects.

Does The Fall amount to anything more than a vast sugar-frosted folly? I'm not convinced it does, although its wanton extravagance is not without charm.

The pacing drags and the clichéd tussle between childhood innocence and adult disillusionment can only go one way. Better to experience it than think about it, fair to say.