The Invisible Circus [Region 2]
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Movie Reviews of The Invisible Circus [Region 2]
Movie Review: A thought provoking film
Summary: 4 Stars
I rented The Invisible Circus, thinking that I would be renting a sob-fest type of movie. Instead, I discovered a wonderful drama, during which I never cried. The movie revolves around Phoebe (Jordana Brewster) who's older sister, Faith (Cameron Diaz)commited suicide on the cliffs of a small town in Poturgal. Intent on discovering why she did this, Phoebe retraces Faith's journey through Europe, and on the way meets Faith's old boyfrend Wolf. One could say that this is a self-discovery movie. Haunted by her sister's death, Phoebe constantly thinks that she will return, but in the end learns to let go. It was nice to see Cameron do something else than the cute, ditzy blonde girl routine and I was pleasently surprised by Jordana Brewster. With breathtaking views of Paris, Berlin, and Potugal, I encourage you to rent this film.Movie Review: Awful
Summary: 1 Stars
Not only is "The Invisible Circus" one of the most pretentious movies in recent years, it is also one of the most incompetent. It plays like an art-house version of NBC's "The 60s" mini-series, which itself was very shallow. This movie takes a variety of hippie cliches right out of "Hair" and mixes them in with elements of J.D. Salinger and Sylvia Plath (without the depth). The plot is your typical troubled youth-longs-to-find-purpose-in-this-Godforsaken world. This time, however, we have TWO troubled youths who happen to be sisters. Cameron Diaz, who is arguably the most appealling and accomplished movie starlette of her generation, does not have a part to sink her teeth into here. She more or less copies Robin Wright's performance from "Forrest Gump". Jordana Brewster plays her younger sister who has naively worshipped Diaz since her apparant suicide in Portugal. Neither of these characters do much other than hallucinate and mope about, all disguised as a "looking for meaning" trip (in every sense of the world). Isn't it about time for a director to make a film about the 60s with three-dimensional characters and a plot we can care about? It certainly isn't this recycled tripe!Movie Review: Awful
Summary: 1 Stars
Not only is "The Invisible Circus" one of the most pretentious movies in recent years, it is also one of the most incompetent. It plays like an art-house version of NBC's "The 60s" mini-series, which itself was very shallow. This movie takes a variety of hippie cliches right out of "Hair" and mixes them in with elements of J.D. Salinger and Sylvia Plath (without the depth). The plot is your typical troubled youth-longs-to-find-purpose-in-this-Godforsaken world. This time, however, we have TWO troubled youths who happen to be sisters. Cameron Diaz, who is arguably the most appealling and accomplished movie starlette of her generation, does not have a part to sink her teeth into here. She more or less copies Robin Wright's performance from "Forrest Gump". Jordana Brewster plays her younger sister who has naively worshipped Diaz since her apparant suicide in Portugal. Neither of these characters do much other than hallucinate and mope about, all disguised as a "looking for meaning" trip (in every sense of the world). It's about time for a director to make a film about the 60s with three-dimensional characters and a plot we can care about. It certainly isn't this recycled tripe!Movie Review: Doomed to disappoint...
Summary: 2 Stars
The Invisible Circus must have looked great on paper. It's Jennifer Egan's successful and much-loved first novel adapted by proven screenwriter Adam Brooks (Practical Magic, Beloved, French Kiss). It had a promising variety of star wattage attached, including blockbuster darling Cameron Diaz, rising star Jordana Brewster, art house favorite Christopher Eccleston and the perenially excellent Blythe Danner. The drama moves from the coast of California to the streets of Paris to the cliffs of Portugal -- a potential visual feast of landscapes. And from a marketing standpoint, the story features a bit of everything -- family, rebellion, love, loss, guns, drugs, sex, world-travel, a 70s soundtrack, politcal intruige... even an old Volkswagen. A guaranteed hit, right?Wrong. The Invisible Circus fails, and fails miserably.
The failure of this film can be blamed largely on Brewster. Her Phoebe is by turns annoying, cruel, selfish, ridiculous... you name it -- Brewster is almost unwatchable in her portrayal of a difficult character. I imagine an actress with more emotional sensitivity could have pulled it off and made the character a bit sympathetic, but Brewster fails entirely. From what I understand, she is studying at Yale... let's hope she's majoring in something other than drama.
Cameron Diaz fares better -- unlike Brewster, she's actually acting. But her character Faith is cursed by writer/director Brooks, who robs us visually and verbally of Faith's real struggle. He has the other characters inform us that Faith is upset, rather than give Diaz the chance to really portray the conflict onscreen. And so when we finally reach the point where we learn what really happened to her character, it feels like an anticlimax. Diaz tries her best, but she can't save Faith.
I'm a fan of both Christopher Eccleston and Blythe Danner, and why either of them chose to appear in this movie is a mystery to me. Eccleston, like Diaz, is given little to work with -- he's reduced to a series of broody stares at Brewster and a very bad hippie wig that makes him look older, not younger. Danner, as Phoebe and Faith's mother, is limited largely by poorly written dialogue and by the fact that all of her scenes are with Brewster.
Given the dramatic potential of the story, I think it could have been a better film in the hands of another writer/director. Though Brooks is a proven screenwriter and has even directed before (back in the 80s), whatever experience he gained in the past fails him here. He has given us the dismal Brewster in an uneven, poorly-written and emotionally lacking display of moviemaking. The Invisible Circus is a waste of time.