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The Basics: A heartbroken suicide-case movie stunt man, recovering from an accident and unable to walk, lies bedbound in a Los Angeles hospital in 1915. There he meets a six-year-old Romanian girl, herself recovering from a broken arm. To pass the time (and hopefully get her to help him kill himself), he invents a story of a band of adventurers to draw her into his world.
What's the Deal? If you saw The Cell or R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" video then you know what director Tarsem Singh is about. He wants to show you how awesome he can make everything look, even if it makes no sense about 50 percent (or more) of the time. And he needs to do that here, because it's essentially an extremely baroque bedtime story in the service of adult needs, one that doesn't stand up very well on its own without all the pretty-pretty surrounding it.
The Pretty-Pretty: Is really impressive. Its worth looking at for that alone. Almost as impressively, Tarsem (he goes by one name — I know, pretentious) shot this thing over four years and in about 10 times as many locations, all the while making it look like his child star (newcomer Untaru) isn't aging all that much. Call it self-indulgent or call it a visual decathlon that he runs with a car tied to his back, this guy isn't lazy about getting the shot he wants.
That Child Star: She somehow manages to be in almost every scene in the movie, speak in halting English (since it sort of is her second language) and communicate great emotion throughout. Natural instead of annoying or scary — watch your backs, Fanning kids.
He's Also a Trickster: Tarsem claims not to have informed any members of his cast or crew on the hospital set that co-star Pace (this was made before he got TV-famous on Pushing Daisies) could actually walk, going so far as to make assistants take the man to the bathroom in a wheelchair. What this was supposed to have accomplished outside of extreme Methodism is anyone's guess.
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