Name one of your favourite films. Perhaps it's sci-fi classic Blade Runner? The feel-good masterpiece It's A Wonderful Life? Or the truly masterful prison drama The Shawshank Redemption? What do all these films have in common? They all flopped at the cinema, went by relatively un-noticed, but then bobbed their way back up to the surface and earned the kudos their truly deserved.

Throughout Hollywood history some of the most beloved films have managed to completely miss their target audiences at the cinema and gather up momentum post-video or television debuts, being discovered slowly and ultimately generating hugely dedicated and vociferous fan-bases.

There was one film that came out late last year that seemed to announce itself to me as a film that might just achieve that same task; the fantastical adventure The Fall. It's a dangerous route to take, championing a film as a future classic, but I can't help but at least urge people to seek out this movie and take a chance on a truly spectacular and imaginative story, that is ultimately very human and emotional.

Tarsem had previously directed the visually stunning, but in all other regards awful, thriller The Cell starring Jennifer Lopez, so heading to the cinema late-2008 I at least knew my eyes would get a feast. Boy, was I right! Shot in 18 different countries Tarsem has gone out of his way to show you the natural world in a way you could barely have imagined, he has championed that the sets bare no special effects work and from a strictly photographic point-of-view this film is eye-wateringly beautiful. Taking in India, South Africa, Europe, South America, this is the cinematic equivalent of BBC's series Planet Earth, but more than that it tells a charming and stunning multi-layered story.

A young girl, Alexandria (newcomer Catinca Untaru), is in hosptial in 1920s Los Angeles with a broken arm, there she meets injured stuntman Roy (Pushing Daisies' Lee Pace) and forms a friendship. Roy begins telling Alexandria this story of a team of bandits and rogues wishing to get revenge upon an evil governor. For Roy this story is a veiled re-telling of his recent romantic misfortunes, for Alexandria her imagination begans to incorporate those she meets in her daily life on the wards. Ultimately the persuasive nature of Roy's story-telling has dramatic effects, and the true power of the imagination and story-telling will draw laughs, gasps and tears. Indeed, what surprised me most about Tarsem's film was not its obvious visual grandeur but how connected I became to the characters the story that they both live and tell.

Without wishing to spoil things any further I would compare the film to family adventures like The Princess Bride and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, though the DVD is certificated a 15 and has some dark moments, I can see it being embraced by families as a life-affirming and genuinely magical story.

The Fall is out now on DVD.