The Invisible Circus (2001)

Moving and Realistic 'Coming of Age' Drama
Some people don't like this film, since it doesn't fill in all the blanks for them, or simply because they don't like the 60's.

That's too bad, because in it's own way it's a little gem. I for one don't need my feelings and thoughts dictated to me, in the way that many 'popcorn' movies do. A way that many people have gotten used to it seems, and that made them lazy. And as for the 60's, this film is certainly not without its (implicit) criticism about the era...

This film challenges you to think for yourself, and make up your own mind. In my book that's a good thing.

We see how Faith gets overwhelmed by her fathers projections: in his view she's born in the right age to change things - unlike himself, a wannabe painter who's stuck in an office job. Faith and Phoebe believe that's what brought him to an early grave, and Faith sets out to fulfill her fathers dreams, which have now become her own.

Always looking for more, pushing further and further, Faith crosses the line and ventures into violent and extremist circles. Too late she realizes she went too far, and there's no way back - at least in her mind.

One of many thing that this film shows 'between the lines' is how easy it is to stray too far, and how hard it is to take one step back after you've crossed a certain line. And I'm not (just) talking about the ending of the film. It's clear to see how estranged Faith is from her old hippie friends after she comes back from the extremist RAF circles. She's still on an adrenaline buzz when she comes back, thinking the extremists were the real deal and oh so very exiting, whilst she perceives her old friends as 'boring' and merely 'wasting their time with slogans and banners'. Misguided as she is, she sees the terrorists as the only ones who are really making a difference. She can't relate to her friends anymore, and that's one more reason why it all went so horribly wrong...

The younger sister Phoebe sets out to follow Faith's footsteps, be it just to find out how it could have been possible that her happy, fun loving sister suddenly committed suicide.

It's a 'coming of age' drama in a way, but in a sense that we all have to find our own way, not follow blindly in the footsteps of others. It also makes a point that violence is never the answer. The only way to ever really change things is by setting a positive example, reach out to others, and keep on struggling to find our own truth.

A wonderful film
It is 1969. Phoebe(Camilla Belle) is an 11 year old girl growing up with an idealized vision of her 19 year old sister Faith(Cameron Diaz). Faith is the doer, the truth-seeker, the fixer of all the wrongs in the world. Then one day, Phoebe and her mother Gail(Blythe Danner) receive word that Faith is dead. Faith has killed herself. Both Phoebe and Gail are overwhelmed by this news and, although saddened, Gail mourns. Phoebe can't let it go. Phoebe decides to go to Europe and find out what happened.

It is now 1977. Phoebe(Jordana Brewster) is 18 and decides to go to Europe over the objections of her mother to discover the truth. When alive, Faith was inseparable from a man she called "Wolf"(Christopher Eccleston). Though Wolf claimed not to know anything about Faith's last days, Phoebe convinces him to tell her everything. Within days, Wolf realizes that he hadn't let go of the past either and he joins Phoebe on her pilgrimage to Portugal.

In the end, Wolf is able to tell of Faith's decent into drug abuse and his own guilt at not preventing the suicide. Although angry, Phoebe realizes in the end how human and fragile Faith really was.

I liked this movie. I'm old enough to remember the bank robberies of the Red Army and I was 10 in 1969. This story was familiar ground for me. I can still remember young men trying to decide if they should go to Canada or not to avoid the draft.

The story is simple, but probably occurred several times in real life during that period. Camilla Belle was perky, enjoyable and fun to watch as she portrayed the young adoring sister excited by what was happening around her. Jordana Brewster slid easily into the role of the older Phoebe. Blythe Danner was the ever supportive mother, a role she is all too familiar with on American TV, unfortunately. I would have liked to see her with stronger material to work with.
Cameron Diaz played the immature anarchist perfectly. Though at times, her performance of a 1960s activist seemed to come off a news reel. Watching her dance on the wall, kind of made me cringe.
Of all the characters, it was Christopher Eccleston's Wolf, that made the most growth. When we are introduced to the character at the beginning of the movie, we can see he is a worldly man. He is a patient and kind man filled with anger at the world's injustices. In the end, he realizes the direction he and Faith are headed is wrong and begins to "grow up" deciding he should fight against injustice in his own way. Faith refuses to join him in this and it eventually leads to her death. Eccleston's Wolf is the most real of all the characters.

For most of us, our idealism either dies or we adjust and conquer through other ways. This is what the Wolf character did.

look carefully
....this is a granite-colored gem, more beautiful for what it lacks than for what it has.
It lacks, for one thing, that amber-colored lens that so many filmmakers use, the one that colors the world in bright jewel tones and lush greens. It lacks Spielberg-esque background music telling you how to feel. It lacks glamour, fairy tales and phoniness.
Phoebe goes to Europe to track Faith's footsteps. There is no aerial view of the Eiffel Tower with accordions playing La Vie En Rose. There are no cutesy Europeans plying her with their wares, no breathtaking, overphotographed landmarks. She is alone in the dingy, drab, real colors of the real Europe. She finds out that Faith wasn't what she thought. She finds out that she, Phoebe, is OK after all. Not an atom-splitting moment; just an everyday kind of epiphany, wrenching nonetheless.
Diaz is at her best here - she proves that she's a real actress and not just a popular blonde.
Pay attention to the ending, if you didn't the first time. It's like a period at the end of a sentence.
This film didn't insult my intelligence or my attention span. It was really quite refreshing. And haunting.