Movie Review: "The Fall"

It's been awhile since I've done a movie review, but this one was worth reviewing.
Alexandria is a little girl - oh. no. sorry. she says she's not little. she's 5. - in the hospital sometime in the 1920's. 
Ugh - I'm having trouble summing it up. Here's what the library website says, "1920's, Los Angeles. In a hospital on the outskirts of town, Roy Walker, an injured stuntman, begins to tell young Alexandria, a fellow patient with a broken arm, a fantastical story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances."
That's not quite right either, but I'm not sure what would be better without a spoiler.

I enjoyed this movie. I liked the relationship between Alexandria and Roy, and the story he was telling kind of had a "Big Fish" feel - a little different, grandiose, and colorful. The opening credits were a bit long (I fast-forwarded a bit, to be honest) and I'm not sure about the ending, but overall it was quite good.

The girl, Catinca Untaru, is adorable. I decided then and there that I'm going to adopt a little girl someday. She's so precious. And such a good actress. I don't know how you can possibly get a performance that believable out of a child. The only time I've seen one comparable was Victoire Thivisol in "Ponette"  (another good movie, though in French). This girl nails it. Also, she was only 6 when they filmed this and English wasn't her first language. Very impressive. There were times it was a little hard to understand her, but it was mostly because she was little kid quiet and/or upset, not because of her accent.

Then there's Lee Pace. I've only ever seen him in this and "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day," but goodness that man can make me fall in love with him in about three seconds. And it's not that he's woo-woo. He's very average looking and has heavy eyebrows. But he's charming. (Actually, Amy Adams found him so dashing in "Miss Pettigrew" that the director had to ask him to leave the set at times because he was too distracting.) He was quite good in this role.

The movie's rated R for "Some violence," but it's really not bad. "Slumdog Millionaire" was rated R for that, too. It's probably about the same intensity as far as that goes.

I recommend it. I'm hoping the library will let me renew it so I can watch it again this week before returning it. And that's my review of that.