Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away

 

I'm certain that there is an audience for Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away.  I'm also certain that I am not part of it.  This 3D feature film by the popular Montreal-based circus group that combines theatrical art and wizardry with complex dance and acrobatics is long on spectacle, but short on coherence.  The movie starts out trying to tell a simple narrative, but then it kind of degrades into a series of stunts set to music, many of which are taken from the group's different shows.  What we essentially have here is a 90 minute sample of their many productions, strung together by a very thin plot.

As the film opens, a young girl named Mia (Erica Linz) comes across a ramshackle old circus, and decides to explore within.  She eventually comes across a handsome Russian aerialist (Igor Zaripov), and is immediately taken by him when she sees his act.  As the aerialist performs his death-defying acrobatic act, he misses, and falls to the sandy ground far below him.  Much to Mia's surprise, the sand turns into a vortex which swallows the aerialist down.  Concerned for him (I guess), she follows him down the hole, and finds herself in another world of gymnastics, synchronized dance and swimming, and cover songs of Elvis and Beatles music.  From that point on, the movie kind of just stops trying to tell a story, and simply turns into a promotional tour for the Cirque du Soleil group, as we witness highlights from their different shows, many playing in Vegas.

I guess Mia's search for the aerialist is supposed to string these sequences together, but it doesn't really work out, since there's never a coherent plot developed by writer-director Andrew Adamson (Shrek).  One minute, the aerialist is being held captive by evil dancers.  The next, he seems to be enjoying himself, and enticing Mia to explore this bizarre world further.  As amazing and thrilling as some of these sequences can be, there is simply nothing there on an emotional level.  We're just stuck watching surreal images.  Don't get me wrong, they're intriguing and well-performed surreal images.  They're just not enough to build a movie around.  And that's all this movie really is.  There's little to no dialogue, and no attempt to explain what is supposed to be happening.  We're just watching the highlight reel.

I'm sure the thrill of watching a Cirque du Soleil performance live is seeing these amazing stunts and dancing done in real time.  In a movie, much of that thrill is gone, since you know the whole thing has been edited, and the director could just yell "cut" whenever something didn't work out right.  Plus, thanks to the magnified images on the big screen, you can clearly see the wires holding the dancers up - something that you don't see in a live audience.  To say that this robs a little bit of the mystery of the performance would be an understatement.  That's not to say there aren't some interesting moments here.  I like the riderless tricycle that guides Mia a long at certain times, and the scene where a rabbit's head turns into a living creature is also interesting.  But, once again, the question remains - what the heck does it mean?

 

Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away never comes up with a reason to exist.  With so many productions by the group playing just about all over the world, it's not like there's a shortage of them to choose from.  The movie is supposed to be a sample of their different performances, but it's not a very engaging one.  Instead of inspiring audiences to seek out their live shows, this movie just may leave them walking out of the theater scratching their heads, and wondering what they just watched.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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