The Invisible Circus Review
by Michael Dequina (twotrey AT juno DOT com)February 18th, 2001
_The_Invisible_Circus_ (R) ** 1/2 (out of ****)
The not-so-invisible center of _The_Invisible_Circus_ is Jordana Brewster, who, in her first film role since the teen popcorn thriller _The_Faculty_, gives a breakthrough dramatic performance. Her character's arc is a fairly compelling coming-of-age journey. Unfortunately, the film also fancies itself a mystery, and it's this bit of baggage that weighs down Adam Brooks' adaptation of Samantha Egan's novel.
The mystery is that of Phoebe O'Connor's (Brewster) elder sister Faith's (Cameron Diaz) death in Europe some seven years prior. The year is now 1977, and much to her mother's (Blythe Danner) chagrin, 17-year-old Phoebe is determined to repeat Faith's fateful trip across the Atlantic in order to find out what really happened. With the help of Faith's now-Paris-based ex Wolf (Christopher Eccleston), Phoebe retraces her sister's steps--in more ways than one--on her way to the truth.
When the truth comes, audiences are likely to not be nearly as shocked as Phoebe is. Without giving too much away, the free-spirited hippie Faith fell into some radical activities--which, given the late '60s-early '70s time frame of her life in Europe, is hardly surprising. Diaz exercises her dramatic abilities respectably as her thread takes increasingly dark turns, but her and Eccleston's performances are the only things keeping the flashbacks from being tedious and often boring.
But as the film's tagline so appropriately puts it, "the journey is the destination," and Phoebe's evolution from sheltered young girl to independent young woman is involving and affecting; much of this is a credit to Brewster's strong yet sensitive portrayal of Phoebe. Brewster easily carries the film with a performance of strong emotional immediacy and honesty that is also quite subtle; her face often says all that's needed to suggest the fear that simultaneously comes with each of Phoebe's outwardly gutsy moves.
So much more a shame, then, that _The_Invisible_Circus_ isn't exclusively about her character. The mystery involving Faith is what makes Phoebe throw caution to the wind and hit the road previously traveled, but it would have perhaps been better if she made the journey to simply find out more about who her idolized sister was rather than to do some amateur sleuthing. Whenever Brooks hits a stride with Phoebe's tale, the mystery element takes over, and similarly, that crudely formed aspect of the film overwhelms what is fully functional.
©2001 Michael Dequina
Michael Dequina
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