Tarsem Singh’s indulgent epic, produced by Spike Jonze and David Fincher, was little seen on its original release in 2006, and now gets a rerelease in a 4K restoration on the Mubi streaming platform. It’s certainly worth noticing, with its Gilliamesque surrealism, and its setting in Rajasthan, north-western India, offers wonderful landscapes. Its beguiling set pieces feature Justine Waddell playing some deadpan comedy as a gloriously costumed princess – although I have to admit that in general the film’s rather placid, stately, fantasy style can be exasperatingly inert.
The scene is Los Angeles in the early years of silent pictures; Lee Pace plays Roy, a stuntman who is now seriously, perhaps permanently, injured. He is laid up in hospital and deeply depressed after a dangerous fall filming a movie whose lead actress was once his girlfriend, but has now left him for the vapid male star. Roy is befriended by a little Romanian girl from the neighbouring children’s ward; this is Alexandria (played by Catinca Untaru, whose English dialogue is sometimes a little indistinct). Kindly, Roy offers to tell the wide-eyed Alexandria an epic story of adventure featuring five heroes battling a hateful governor, and the story comes to life before our eyes with Roy and Alexandria appearing in it and some whimsical muddling up of Indians and Native Americans. Continue reading...
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