Tuesday, January 1, 2008

“The WATERHORSE : LEGEND Of The DEEP”

I liked this movie – not a fantastic fantasy yarn – but a good, solid effort that should whet the appetite of any dinosaur or ‘Loch Ness Monster’ fan. A little syrupy at times, sure, but they do counter the sap by showing the ‘creature’ exhibiting a ferocious side & by creating tension with the presence of the military. They are a threat to accidentally kill the Waterhorse by thinking it to be a German submarine.“I see the scope!” one soldier yells out when ‘Nessie’ raises its head on a dark, stormy night.Angus (Alex Etel) finds a large egg-shaped rock in the shallows of the loch & takes it home.

After scraping of the barnacles, he discovers that it is indeed an egg which hatches the following day. Angus is the first thing the creature sees, & eventually bonds with the boy as its ‘papa’. Emily Watson plays Angus’s mother who does not allow the youngster to have a pet, so he hides ‘Crusoe’ (Named for ‘Robinson...’) in the work shed. When handyman Lewis (Ben Chaplin) comes on the scene; ‘Crusoe’ sneaks out of the shed & into the house, where he takes up residence in the upstairs bathtub.

Like any mythical creature, the waterhorse grows in proportion to its environment. From a barrel to the tub doubles his size; after spending a night in a fountain, he doubles in size again – the only solution is to put Crusoe in the loch – but will the creature adapt to the wild – or keep retuning to ‘papa’ Angus?It is a ‘Scottish’ Free Willy in many aspects - there was one line spoken by Lewis with such a thick brogue, I had no idea what he said. (Captioning would have helped here for those of us who only speak ‘American’ English)It was entertaining throughout, with moments of humor, fear & of course, syrupy child/sea-monster bonding that I will admit put a lump in my throat (I’m getting much too emotional in my old age) I would say it is definitely a film that should be enjoyed by kids of ‘all’ ages.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

this is very good movi. you say right. 2time now.