The Invisible Circus (2001)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Adam Brooks

Writers (WGA):

Jennifer Egan (novel)
Adam Brooks (screenplay)

Release Date:

23 February 2001 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

A story of friendship, freedom and fate that could only happen in the Sixties

Plot:

A teenage girl travels to Paris in the 1970s trying to find out about her sister's suicide, and falls in love with her dead sister's boyfriend.

Plot Keywords:

Suicide | Paris | Father | Europe | Big Sister

Cast

Cameron Diaz	...	Faith
Jordana Brewster	...	Phoebe
Christopher Eccleston	...	Wolf
Blythe Danner	...	Gail
Camilla Belle	...	Phoebe, Age 10-12
Patrick Bergin	...	Gene
Isabelle Pasco	...	Claire
Moritz Bleibtreu	...	Eric
Philipp Weissert	...	Safehouse Leader
Nikola Obermann	...	Hannah
Robert Getter	...	American Statesman
Ricky Koole	...	Nikki

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality, language and drug content.

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Germany:12 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:7 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

Company:

Fine Line Features

Movie Connections:

Featured in Return to Edge City (2005) (V)

Soundtrack:

Stay Away From Heaven

Good performances, contrived film

This is a case where the script plays with the audience in a manner that serves only in extending this story to 90 minutes. Story starts out in 1969 where a young girl named Faith (Cameron Diaz) travels to Europe with her boyfriend Wolf (Christopher Eccleston) but she dies under mysterious circumstances. Then in 1976 Faith's sister Phoebe (Jordana Brewster) decides to travel to Europe as well and try and find out what happened to her sister. In France she looks up Wolf who has stayed there and she wants him to help her retrace the steps her sister took and answer some questions. He is reluctant but decides to travel with her. Along the way he fills in the gaps of the occurrences and tells Phoebe that Faith had joined up with the Red Army who are an extremist group that is involved in terrorism. Phoebe and Wolf engage in a romance and this complicates the trip to Portugal where Faith died. Their is several things wrong with this film and it all has to do with the script. First, the romance between Wolf and Phoebe is all wrong and does nothing for the story. It rings completely false and comes across as forced. It seems weird that Wolf would engage in a romance with his dead girlfriends sister. Secondly, Wolf knows completely what happened to Faith but only lets out little chunks of information every 15 minutes or so. Wolf will look at Phoebe every 15 minutes and say, "There is something I didn't tell you"! Gee, thanks a lot Wolf! If Wolf had come clean the first time he talked to Phoebe then the film would have been over in about 30 minutes. Another thing that bothered me was that I don't think this film recreated the 1960's at all. Diaz wears hippie clothes but the time period just didn't ring true. I did enjoy a few things like the authentic locations where the film was shot. It is a very good looking film and the scenery is beautiful. The performances are all good especially by Brewster and Diaz. Besides "The Fast and the Furious" I had never really seen Brewster in anything. But after watching her performance in this film I came away very impressed. She's very good here and I hope better roles come her way. The script is told in a very contrived way and the film never comes across as believable.