Friday, December 28, 2007
Movie review: The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
Can an adult-type person on his or her own recognizance sit through this PG-rated movie without cringing? (Yep.)
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
Two children discover an egg on a beach in Scotland which eventually hatches into a "waterhorse". Later, that waterhorse grows up to be the Loch Ness monster.
Source: Cinema Source
My choices for Friday film coverage were limited this week to two: AVP-R, involving alien-from-outer-space creatures that threaten to destroy the very fabric of our existence (by hugging our faces in a bad way, chopping off our heads and/or forcing us to blow ourselves up with nukes - as if we needed any help in that last department) and this kid's adventure pic about a cuddly version of the Loch Ness Monster. As opposed to this more fearsome one.
In a fit of moral rectitude, I chose the latter, opting (uncharacteristically) for wholesome family entertainment as opposed to exploitative dreck. Call me crazy - just don't call me late for a midnight screening of Ilsa - She Wolf of the SS.
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (gotta love that dramatic subtitle) is rated PG for (it says here) "some action/peril, mild language and brief smoking." Thank God that smoking incident didn't last any longer, or I would have been forced to avert my eyes: it was 11:30 a.m. and I was already craving a big green stogie.
The Northpark theater auditorium was moderately populated when I arrived, filled mostly with moms, grandfolks and lots of accessory kids. I took it as a good omen that the wee lads and lassies were well-behaved and almost preternaturally quiet. (Knocking wood here that I didn't use up my lifetime quota of quiet-kid karma in this one outing.)
If you're gonna make a kid's adventure flick (as director Jay Russell set out to do) you might as well set it in a scenic, history-drenched romantic locale such as Scotland - only instead of actually filming in Scotland, the crew used the markedly craggier terrain of New Zealand as a bonnie, bonnie surrogate. [Must be a tax credit issue or something; maybe next time they'll consider using Texas.] Additionally, if your sights are set on making a heartwarming family picture, you could do far worse than selecting as your source material a book by the guy who wrote Babe: Dick King-Smith.
To make a long story short (before I make it longer again by delving into specifics), this turns out to be a pretty dang good movie - even by adult standards. The performances of several recognizable seasoned veterans (Emily Watson, Brian Cox, David Morrissey) serve to anchor the work of the newcomer bit players and kids. Alex Etel (who charmed us in Millions) plays the lead role of Angus MacMorrow, tide-pool prospector and discoverer thereby of a barnacle-encrusted bomb-shaped thingy that he smuggles home in a pail against all better judgment, it being mid-conflict WWII and all.
Angus' mom Anne (Emily Watson, looking disturbingly matronly) is holding down the nobleperson-housekeeper front while her handy-bloke better half is off serving in the Royal Navy. Angus' sister Kirstie is played by someone who looks so much like a young Emily Watson that I was convinced (until looking her up later on IMDB) the girl was actually her daughter. [Turns out the young actress' name is Priyanka Xi, which pretty much rules out that possibility unless Emily bore an unacknowledged love child while visiting exotic realms to the East.]
Anyway, Angus succeeds in hatching out a wee weird beastie from his bomb-shaped chunk of jetsam, and it's a good thing the baby-faced hatchling likes potatoes because that's initially all Angus can get hold of to feed him. Angus hides his romping, chattering pet in a workshed behind the estate, eventually installing him in a waste bin filled with water, which the young critter (christened "Crusoe") takes to like a Scotsman to haggis.
Complicating the whole raising of the water horse (which ends up looking basically like a big-ass plesiosaur with Shrek horns and a beaver tail installed as custom extras) is the occupation of the estate by a troop of British army blokes led by Captain Hamilton (David Morrissey), who's the son of some sort of upper-crust official who's been assigned to the home front in order not to mess up the actual war effort. Which doesn't stop him from acting like the Hun are preparing to invade the northern precincts of the monarchy, leading to the installation of enough gunnery astride the loch to forestall an invasion by advanced alien beings, much less the bloody Nazis.
(Gaffe alert: this weird New Zealandish Loch Ness actually opens onto the sea via a broad navigable inlet, as opposed to the actual loch which - um - doesn't.)
Along for the plot-thickening ride are a pair of sinister sergeants (one who takes over the food storage bunker with his watch-bulldog, Churchill; and the other who prides himself on his hunting skills and glares evilly whenever young Angus wanders past) and an interim replacement handyman named Lewis Mowbray (Ben Chaplin), who has a mysterious scar on his back. Which the (matronly) Anne MacMorrow can't help but notice as he's washing up in the workshed without his shirt. (Shades of Lady Chatterly... but very distant shades indeed, this being a PG film.) Notable comic relief is provided by a pair of tippling fishermen who get the high-speed rowboat ride of their lives when they hook onto a mackerel that Crusoe has taken a shine to.
Once he reaches full adulthood after being released into the loch, Crusoe gives Angus a bit of a ride, too - living up to his water horse designation. This SFX nautical odyssey sequence must have been enthralling to the kiddos in the audience, judging by their involuntary exclamations. To my old eyes the creature effects throughout the film (engineered by Weta Digital) are as well done as necessary to draw the viewer into the magical realm of the water horse.
Beyond the atmospheric locale, pleasing performances and cutesy creature trappings, this movie contains actual messages - gracefully delivered - that might prove instructive to kids (and adults): messages about love, separation, loss and moving on; authority and its trappings; and wonders lurking amidst ordinary things. If you're looking for family entertainment with more to it than high-dollar facade, look no further than this little gem of a film from down under - with a Scots accent.
TRUST ME: "All this is for your own protection." - Captain Hamilton to Anne MacMorrow, as he sets up his troop headquarters in her domicile
WRONG AGAIN, MOM: "There's no monster and there's no magic!" - Anne MacMorrow to Angus
NOD TO CONNOR MACLEOD: "There can only be one." - water horse, that is
Peter Stawicki, says:
I was lucky enough to get an advance screening of this movie last month. On the surface it looks like childs fare with a cute and cuddly ET like monster who needs to be hidden away from view. But don't be fooled. While I do recommend this movie, it's laden with far more below the surface. The movie is more about a scared and scarred young boy during the Second World War. He and his mother and younger sister occupy a large estate along the lochs in Scotland. There home quickly fills when they hire a mysterious caretaker, very well played by Ben Chaplin and then the home is occupied by a Brigade of Soldiers who are there to secure the seaport. The young boy has a major fear of water and the initial sequence with him at the beach is not for the young alone. It could be perceived as quite scary as are later scenes involving the soldiers and a perceived threat. All in all though, the tale is filled with many laughs, some good light scenes of myrth and in the end a bit of healing for all the characters.
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