The second film by the one-name Tarsem (unused surname, Singh) differs by two letters from his first film, The Cell. It differs by little in other ways as well, a gagging phantasmagoria of debased and diluted surrealism. (Suggested title for his next opus: The Pill.) The story, a fiction-within-fiction wherein a suicidal stuntman of the silent era whiles away the hours in a hospital ward by spinning an “epic” revenge tale for a broken-armed little girl, has hints of substance and dabs of invention; but the visual style of the “epic,” a sort of fashion-shoot fotonovela, is ineluctably eye-glazing. The slow movement of Beethoven’s Seventh behind the opening credits, perhaps the most oft-used classical piece in movies, or perhaps second or third to Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” and Pachelbel’s Canon, bodes ill for originality. With Lee Pace and Catinca Untaru. (2006) — Duncan Shepherd
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