*1/2“The Fall” is a remarkable film.If you have read anything about this movie, you are already aware that its exotic locations, artfully designed camera angles, and colorful art direction make it a unique experience. What I’d like to mention, then, is something equally, if not more, remarkable: the performance of its lead actress, the young Romanian actress Catinca Untaru.Untaru plays Alexandria, a precocious little immigrant girl recovering from a broken arm in an early 1920s Los Angeles hospital. There she meets Roy (Lee Pace), an injured movie stuntman who can’t feel his legs and is also despondent over the loss of his girlfriend. Looking for something a little more devious than just her company, he begins to enchant Alexandria with a tale of five adventurers on a trip to exact revenge on an evil governor named Odious.”The Fall” is directed by Tarsem, who previously helmed the ridiculous serial killer thriller “The Cell” in 2000. That movie shoehorned a Vince-Vaughn-and-Jennifer Lopez-led police procedural plot into Tarsem’s beautiful and bizarre fantasy sequences, which took place in the mind of said serial killer. It didn’t make a lick of sense emotionally or narratively, but it proved the director has a knack for eye-popping visual flair. While being pretty to look at, it was nevertheless an utter bore.Tarsem fares much better in “The Fall,” which is based on a 1981 Bulgarian movie called “Yo Ho Ho.” The ornately designed fantasy sequences in “The Fall” not only make far more sense with the story, but they provide a context for the two hospital-ridden pals to act out. Roy’s imagination feeds Alexandria’s, and when the depressed storyteller gets bored, the young girl adds her own fanciful interpretation. People from the hospital become characters in Roy’s story, only decked out in flashy costumes and possessing great powers. It’s a small part “The Wizard of Oz” and another bit “Pan’s Labyrinth,” though not nearly as jarring and violent.Pace and Untaru have an unusual chemistry that is so interesting and real, it absolutely drives the fantasy sequences. Her reactions are so unaffected it’s as if she’s not even working off of a script. Sometimes she stumbles over her words, searching for the right way to communicate with Roy, just as a little girl who is new to the country would. Background on Alexandria is sketchy, but we do know hat her house was burned down when she was younger and her father now occupies an iconic place in her dreams. The moments between her and Roy are more than just sweet; they take on an almost tragic tone from the beginning because we suspect Roy’s ulterior motives while Alexandria does not.“The Fall” was filmed over four years in 23 countries and Tarsem, a successful director of music videos and commercials, put up tons of his own money to make it. It’s been finished for two years, but is just now getting a theatrical wide release, in part thanks to David Fincher and Spike Jonze, whose names have been added as “presenting.” While its not exactly what one would consider a mainstream film by any means, its has an undeniable emotional pull and the opportunity to appeal to a much wider audience than it has been given the opportunity to, especially as an alternative to summer blockbusters.It’s also nice to see Tarsem deliver some surprising humor to lighten up the proceedings every now and then. It brings the pretentious-meter down, resetting it to zero before it’s inevitable rise up again every couple of minutes.So is the man who conjures up aesthetically pleasing images that are specifically designed to get us to buy things also capable of carrying off a story with genuine soul and character development? The answer to this often-asked question is very simple: Yes. Tarsem avoids computer generated graphics as much as possible to create a look that is almost exclusively in-camera.I think on some subliminal level, this approach pays off because, as far out as the imagery he presents is, it always feels like it is actually there. It actually exists, in some form or another. The more CGI that becomes common in movies, the more likely we are to feel when it’s not being used, on some level. As fantastic as the story sequences in “The Fall” are, we are grounded by the fact that characters we believe in have created them, and they have happened right there in front of our eyes.The film ends with a wholly-appropriate montage of stunt clips from the early days of film that hold that very same kick.