Describing a film as “miraculous” usually indicates that a critic is guilty of overhype, and/or of sacrificing analytical acumen in favor of gushing over a work that has some measure of deep personal import, for most feature films are at least somewhat difficult to make, requiring all sorts of exigencies and monetary gear-turning in order to even get off the ground—but when it comes to Tarsem Singh’s The Fall, the term seems almost bluntly apt.

With shooting locations in twenty-four countries, financed largely through the director’s own funds, and made over a four-year period (Singh says he had his wrap party before production began, as he had no concrete idea on when they’d ever finish), The Fall nearly failed to find its way to the big screen. Distributors quailed at the production’s extravagance, the plot’s complicatedness to a mainstream audience: Harvey Weinstein, even, purportedly walked out of an early screening of the film. Its premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival garnered mixed reviews, which resulted in a limited theatrical run, and in the years since its release, survived mostly as a cult favorite through the efforts of cinephiles and academics. […]