THE INVISIBLE CIRCUS --------------------
Phoebe O'Connor (Jordana Brewster, "The Faculty") remembers the magic her late father (Patrick Bergin, "Sleeping With the Enemy") and her sister Faith (Cameron Diaz) brought into her life as a little girl. Now eighteen and living alone with her mother (Blythe Danner), Phoebe needs to understand her sister's death, a purported suicide which took place halfway around the world. After provoking her mother to tears, Phoebe runs away to Europe to retrace the steps of Faith and her boyfriend Wolf (Christopher Eccleston, "Elizabeth"), the pair who once brought her "The Invisible Circus."
"The Invisible Circus" is one of those movies that you can enjoy in a numb way on a rainy day when you're sick in bed. Watching it is like having a book read to you by someone who can't enliven his voice above a monotone.
Writer/director Adam Brooks ("Almost You") clearly exposes a source novel (by Jennifer Egan) by his use of extensive voiceover narration and flashbacks. Phoebe tells us how wonderful things were when she was a child, even as she lets slip that both she and her mother were kept at a distance from dad and Faith's close relationship. Rebellious Phoebe dares to suggest Mom didn't understand her own husband as much as she, his daughter, did as a child. Once in Europe, the narration is given over to Wolf, who fills in the parts of her sister's story that Faith's postcards glossed over, in an ever tightening circle. An affair of proximity/comfort is fallen into.
Some liveliness is added to the proceedings by the flashbacks taking place in the tumultuous 60's and the present action taking place on location in Paris, Berlin and Portugal. Yet even these aspects aren't fully realized, as much discussed drugs are nowhere to be seen in the flashbacks and a present day acid trip in Paris is handled embarrassingly.
Brewster isn't bad as the central character whose search for truth ends with some image shattering reality. The camera certainly loves her dark, exotic looks. Diaz is also OK as the idealistic Faith whose desire to change the world leads her down an ironic path. (The two's contrasting dark and light looks can be explained away by the casting of their parents.) Unfortunately, Diaz and Eccleston, a usually fine actor, never really seem to connect except on a superficial level. Eccleston seems like a nice guy in a long haired hippie wig with Faith and simply uncomfortable in his later scenes with Brewster. Still, he adds a bit of class to the proceedings.
At least Brooks keeps things moving along at a fairly steady pace, although things begin to drag a bit as the climax approaches. Cinematography by Henry Braham ("Waking Ned Devine") presents a bright San Francisco but rather dank looking Europe. Landscape is kept to a minimum in favor of close character shots.
"The Invisible Circus" is both overwraught and undercooked.
C
For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com
laura@reelingreviews.com robin@reelingreviews.com
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews