The Invisible Circus (2001)

This is a very sensitive film adaptation of the novel by Jennifer Egan of a younger sister's haunting search for her lost older sister, who is supposed to have committed suicide for unknown reasons some years before. Much of the film is shown in flashbacks, where the older sister is played by Cameron Diaz. Diaz creates a wild, carefree, idealistic character who was typical of the 1960s, a radical flower-child who wants to change the world. The other sister, who was six years younger, is played by Jordana Brewster. She lives in America, and the story commences in the 1970s when Brewster is old enough to want to set out for Europe on her own to seek the answers to Diaz's mysterious death in Portugal. Brewster is a quiet, introspective girl, who is obsessed by discovering the truth about Diaz, a task made all the more urgent in that she is haunted also by the death of their father when they were young, and the consequent feelings of loss and abandonment. The mother is sympathetically played, with a kind of desperate suppressed emotion, by Blythe Danner, who can always be relied upon to provide an element of gravitas to any story. Brewster leaves suddenly for Europe, using savings left to her by her father, and follows the trail of the postcards sent to her by Diaz. She begins in Amsterdam but gets nowhere, so she goes to France and in Paris she finds her sister's old boyfriend, played by Christopher Eccleston. She had known him in America, and he and Diaz had left for Europe together, but Eccleston had never come back. On the one hand he is glad to see her, but it is clear that he is also deeply disturbed and upset at her visit. He is living in a large flat with a French woman and says he has put the past behind him. He claims that he never saw Diaz again after July, 1987, when she left him to go to Berlin. He invites Brewster to stay in his flat and when he is out, she discovers old photos of her sister in a drawer, and one bears the date on the back of August, 1987. So she confronts him and he admits he lied, that he had in fact really gone to Berlin with her. Later in the story, he admits that he lied again, and that he had known Diaz much longer even than that. Diaz had been attracted to radical causes in a naïve way. In Berlin she was able briefly to join the Red Brigades, a terrorist group. But when they discovered how feather-headed she was, they sent her out to buy some newspapers, and when she returned, their squat had been totally vacated and they had vanished. This was their clever way of dumping her so that she would never be able to trace them. She feels well and truly 'dumped' and joins another, less deadly terrorist group. But that affiliation too does not prosper because she ends up detonating a terrorist bomb which kills an innocent man, leaving a widow with several children behind. This suddenly wakes her up from her naïve revolutionary fantasies, so she goes off the Portugal to try to get herself together. The film has some inept patches, such as a purposeless sequence where the younger sister, who has been given some LSD by a stranger, takes the pill and has a bad 'trip' while riding a tourist boat on the Seine. This gives an excuse for psychedelic camera angles and so forth, but it does not move the story forward at all and should have been cut from the script. Despite rambling a bit, the film does retain the mystery right through to the end, where surprising things are revealed in Portugal. The film is not just a mystery story or a thriller, but has some significant lessons to impart, and shows a humanity and a concern for the characters which is often lacking in more one-dimensional thriller stories. It is also an interesting insight into attitudes of what has now become a historical epoch, though to those of us who experienced it personally, it all seems as if everything happened just the other day, or even just a few minutes ago, so vivid were those times and the people and events then.

This received its British network television premiere at 3.20 am on Channel 4 . Believe me this is never the sign of a good movie since in the last few weeks we've had to endure garbage like THIS FILTHY EARTH and DEAD BABIES also being given their premieres at an ungodly hour and boy did they deserve not to be seen I have to admit I made a point of watching THE INVISIBLE CIRCUS since it featured Christopher Eccleston , an actor I've admired since his debut in LET HIM HAVE IT ( Hands up who'd be watching the new series of DOCTOR WHO if it starred a children's television presenter instead of a serious actor ? ) but from the opening sequence of Cameron Diaz dancing in slow motion I was convinced I was going to be watching another piece of pretentious art house crap and as soon as I heard Phoebe's voice over I was having reservations about the movie . Bare in mind I was watching this about 3.30 am which is far too late to be staying up even if you're singleThe worst part of this movie is the start since it's rather sentimental and 60s agitpop man . Phoebe's father dies and her elder sister Faith leaves the house to go to Europe with her lefty hippy friends . Faith dies and a few years later Phoebe travels to Europe to find out what happened to her sister . The story then picks up as it turns out Faith joined the German Red Army Faction and after committing a bombing that killed a young father she commits suicide by jumping off a cliff in Portugal Yeah okay the plot featuring Faith becoming a commie terrorist is very unlikely but despite this it's acted well enough for the audience to be taken in if not totally convinced . But I don't want to give the impression that THE INVISIBLE CIRCUS is a kind of political Euro thriller in the vein of RONIN or YEAR OF THE GUN because that's not what the movie is about , what it's about is guilt and redemption and just about succeeds on this level . It's beautifully acted by the cast but Eccleston is always good while Cameron Diaz is a revelation and makes me wonder what she's doing making crap like CHARLIES ANGELS ?And as a footnote Eccleston's character is called Wolf . It's strange because in the current series of DOCTOR WHO there's numerous references to " Bad Wolf " and one can't help thinking that since Russell T Davies is a self conscious post modernist writer this might have something to do with Eccleston's role in this movie . We shall see

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.

This is a wonderfully told tale of Phoebe, an 18-year-old girl determined to find out what happened to her older, beloved sister Faith (Cameron Diaz). In 1969, Faith and her English boyfriend "Wolf" (Christopher Eccelston) set off from Faith's home in San Francisco to see Europe. Faith never returned -- she committed suicide in Portugal and the circumstances surrounding her death were, given the distance and time, cloudy. Phoebe, now an adult in 1976, uses Faith's daily postcards as her guide, and retraces the couple's travels, but not before she meets up with a now older and more mature Wolf, at his Paris home.Camilla Bell (younger Phoebe) and Jordana Brewster (older Phoebe) could not be more beautiful and lovely.The love affair that develops between Phoebe and Wolf is so credible and powerful, it completely entrances the viewer.Egan's story combines cultural touchstones, political ideology, family ties and passion in this wonderful story.