A credible portrait of an era, and draws in its tensions and conflicts with quite some power.
The Invisible Circus (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:60
Fresh:13
Rotten:47
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: Despite Jordana Brewster's strong performance, The Invisible Circus lacks the necessary dramatic tension to be interesting. Also, the cultural and political contexts of the period are barely explored.
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: In THE INVISIBLE CIRCUS, sixties idealism meets headlong with family conflict and, mysteriously, death. This compelling drama, based on Jennifer Egan's novel, begins in the infamous Summer of '69,... In THE INVISIBLE CIRCUS, sixties idealism meets headlong with family conflict and, mysteriously, death. This compelling drama, based on Jennifer Egan's novel, begins in the infamous Summer of '69, when radical hippie Faith O'Connor (Cameron Diaz), and her English boyfriend Wolf (Christopher Eccleston) take off for Europe, feeling that they will change the world for the positive. Faith diligently writes postcards to her younger sister Phoebe (Jordana Brewster). When they suddenly stop, the next Faith's family hears of her is that her body has been found at the bottom of a cliff outside a tiny Portuguese fishing village, the victim of an apparent suicide. Seven years later, Phoebe, a haunted, introverted teenager, still doesn't believe her adventurous, life-loving sister would have taken her own life so, against the wishes of her protective mother (Blythe Danner), Phoebe decides to retrace Faith's journey across Europe, using the postcards she had received from Faith as her only clues to a growing mystery. From a houseboat in Amsterdam to a flat in Paris, Phoebe follows Faith's footsteps right to the end. Along the way, she finds Wolf married and settled into a life of bourgeois complacency, one of the many twists in this chilling, engaging story. [More]
Starring: Jordana Brewster, Christopher Eccleston, Cameron Diaz, Patrick Bergin
Starring: Jordana Brewster, Christopher Eccleston, Cameron Diaz, Patrick Bergin, Camilla Belle, Blythe Danner
Director: Adam Brooks
Director: Adam Brooks
Screenwriter: Adam Brooks
Composer: Nick Laird-Clowes
Studio: New Line Cinema
Reviews for The Invisible Circus
Part beautifully shot European travelogue and part moving exploration of the darker side of the hippie era's rabid idealism.
The film is overnarrated and in spots overwritten, but Brooks ... does well with actors, and he has coaxed an extraordinary performance out of the young Jordana Brewster.
Mostly through Brewster's central, focusing performance, it brings back the time of youth gone mad with possibility.
It's Diaz's movie as she tramps in and out of various flashbacks. She really sparkles.
A soul-satisfying film about one young woman's rite of initiation into adulthood.
This modest project is all about atmosphere and reflection, and, as such, it is successful.
Brewster has us caught up in her adventure, making us empathize with her conflicts and compulsions.
An absorbing story about hope, youthful ardency and shattered illusions that creates a bonding empathy between the audience and its pensive young heroine.
Although well cast and acted, the movie doesn't amount to much. Still, it is an enjoyable enough diversion.
The Invisible Circus ... doesn't so much illuminate Phoebe's confusion as share it.
By the time the uninspiring finale occurs the audience is completely lost in boredom and longing for the credits.
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