Terrific tall tale

Oct 1 2008 Pierce Hunt, Surrey Herald

In a 1920s hospital ward in Los Angeles, Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), a charismatic immigrant child, is on the mend after breaking her arm in a fall.

On her daily round of exploring the hospital, she befriends a bedridden stuntman, Roy Walker (Lee Pace). Soon enough, a strong bond is made and the two unlikely friends become inseparable.

Roy captivates Alexandria's imagination with his vivid tales of five heroes, who unite in avenging their nemesis, Governor Odious.

The imagery created in each scene of Roy's unfolding story is stunning. Director Tarsem Singh manages to delve in and out of fantasy with ease, while managing to make the storyteller's visions engulf the screen and keep the audience glued to it.

When Roy begins to tire, Alexandria is more than happy to input her own ideas to help the story along. Roy uses people Alexandria likes from the hospital as characters so that she feels a strong connection to the tale.

Alexandria becomes besotted with Roy, and when he asks her if she could find him some morphine, she eventually obliges, unaware that he wants to end his life as he cannot come to terms with his paralysis and losing his girlfriend because of his injuries. The new best friends unwittingly become each other's crutch. And the story Roy unravels acts as the escapism they both need from their personal woes (Alexandria's house was burnt down and her father killed).

It isn't surprising that Singh is able to paint an incredible canvas. His vast experience in manipulating the mind with his background in commercials (Coke, Nike and Levi's) proves that he knows what works as engaging imagery. But his capability of wowing us with breathtaking aesthetics are backed up with his ability to weave a narrative around the story of Roy's ever-increasing depression and the brilliance of the fantasy world.

The art direction is phenomenal, as an incomprehensible amount of time and effort has gone into making each transition a work of art.

8/10