In another ward, young Romanian immigrant Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) is recovering in a partial body cast, she too has had a fall, but is able to move around. Alexandria starts to explore the hospital and get up to mischief out of boredom and a degree of naivete.
When she wanders into Roy's ward he starts to regale her with an epic tale of a group of heroes who are intent on revenge against evil Governor Odious, who has wronged them all.
Roy parcels out bits of the tale each day. For each piece he asks her to do him a favour: something he can't manage in his newly paraplegic state.
No good will come of this
CW: suicidal ideation
Tarsem Singh has delivered what could be described as "The Princess Bride but by Guillermo Del Toro" and it's stunning.
The obviously suicidally morose Roy spins his yarn while we see it through Alexandria's eyes and it's a feast. Tarsem was responsible for The Cell and this shares similarly hyperreal stylised visuals. Which are apparently mostly practical location shoots.
The story is simplistic and shifts to meet Alexandria's demands, populated with references to things in the hospital and both their lives.
There's a bit halfway through I call bullshit on (you'll know it when you see it) but this is a moving sad tale of a lost soul and an innocent briefly in each others orbit 8/10.