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Movie Reivew: Water Horse-Legend of the Deep
12/29/07
I didn't want to see this movie, but my other choices were the surely-stupid Alien- Predator video game and an "inspiring" tale of kids with nothing but "hope" and "determination" featuring a "powerful" Denzel Washington performance.
Water Horse it was and I think I made a good decision- it's a fine movie. You'll probably like it as well.
Water Horse starts with an old man telling a story, always a good sign, to an American couple (Water Horse does a poor job of hiding the fact that the man is telling his own story). The boy in the story, Angus MacMorrow (Alex Etel) fears water and misses his father who has gone off to fight the Germans. On a beach-outing, Angus finds an egg containing a water horse, a legendary creature bearing a striking resemblance to the Nessie currently being protected from Japanese munitions experts by an alliance of Scottish wizards led by Sir Godfrey. Only one water horse exists at a time. During this first five minutes, Water Horse beautifully establishes Angus' outsider, troubled bona-fides with a dream-nightmare-water sequence.
Upon Angus and his mother's return from the beach, a company of British soldiers led by the dapper Captain Hamilton (David Morrissey) invades the Scottish manner to protect Loch Ness from Nazi submarines.
The boy calls the water horse "Crusoe" and spends the first act hiding him. Angus enlists the help of his prim sister, Kirstie MacMorrow (Priyanka Xi) and a kind handyman, Lewis Mowbray (Ben Chaplin). Their efforts are for naught as the "wee" Crusoe grows rapidly and to an extent that makes hiding him impossible.
A series of misunderstandings lead to a battle between the billeted soldiers and Crusoe. Needless to say, Crusoe does wonders for the boy's self-esteem.
Two interesting, but slightly undercooked subplots center on Mowbray. The first is a rivalry, of sorts, between Mowbray, the humble, wounded hero, and Hamilton, the pompous humbug. The other is a budding romance between Mowbray and Angus' mother Anne (Emily Watson).
The match-ups never reach a boiling point, however, as nobody defeats anybody else, a fact that makes for an easy-going film.
Water Horse isn't as predictable as one might imagine. One doesn't know, for example, if Crusoe will stay on the premises, whether he'll help the war effort, or the extent of Hamilton's antagonism.
The characters are fine and the special effects, effective. What places the movie above Free Willy and similar child-meets-controversial beast movies is its setting. The Scottish countryside and its inhabitants are both very charming and placing the movie in wartime, like Narnia, automatically gives the movie some heft.
Message/Politics:
The movie's most interesting distinctions are between the phony-tough (but not necessarily bad) represented by Hamilton, the legitimately brave and noble (Mowbray), and the cruel, a hunt-loving soldier. They're good topics to discuss with children.
I always feel uneasy when the audience is supposed to feel worse animals than people, and such is the case in Water Horse, but Water Horse doesn't pound this point into your head. Besides, a case can be made that the creature may have some human-like soul. There's a mild anti-war message of the general "war is insane" variety and some hunters might not like the wild-eyed "sportsman."
One theme of particular interest to Mark Steyn-style culture warriors is the contrast between the modern back-packing, cycling, pampered tourists who seem amazed that their forebearers lived without iPods and the "greatest generation."
cast below:
Follow up:
Directed by
Jay Russell
Writing credits
(WGA)
Robert Nelson Jacobs (screenplay)
Dick King-Smith (book "The Water Horse")
Cast (in credits order)
Bruce Allpress ... Jock McGowan
Eddie Campbell ... Hughie
Ben Chaplin ... Lewis Mowbray
Peter Corrigan ... Jimmy's Buddy #1
Brian Cox ... Old Angus
Carl Dixon ... Gunner Corbin
Alex Etel ... Angus MacMorrow
Nathan Christopher Haase ... Male Tourist
Craig Hall ... Charlie MacMorrow
Ian Harcourt ... Jimmy McGarry
Rex Hurst ... Jimmy's Buddy #2
Bill Johnson ... Clyde (as William Johnson)
Megan Katherine ... Female Tourist
Elliot Lawless ... Beach Kid
Lorraine McDonald ... William's Mother
David Morrissey ... Captain Hamilton
Marshall Napier ... Sgt. Strunk
Edward Newborn ... Corporal Grubbs
Louis Owen Collins ... Young Angus
Phil Peleton ... Soldier
William Russell ... William
Erroll Shand ... Lt. Wormsley
Joel Tobeck ... Sgt. Walker
Ben Van Lier ... Gunner Rapp
Emily Watson ... Anne MacMorrow
Priyanka Xi ... Kirstie MacMorrow
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Geraldine Brophy ... Gracie
Create a character page for: ?
Produced by
Robert Bernstein .... producer
David Brown .... line producer: UK
Charlie Lyons .... producer
Charles Newirth .... executive producer
Barrie M. Osborne .... producer
Douglas Rae .... producer
Jay Russell .... executive producer
Original Music by
James Newton Howard
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