CIRQUE DU SOLEIL; WORLDS AWAY.

US, 2012, 91 minutes, Colour.
Erica Linz, Igor Zaripov.
Directed by Andrew Adamson.

This is an opportunity for all those millions who do not have the opportunity or finance to visit Las Vegas to see some of the performances of the Cirque du Soleil at the various theatres in the casinos. All these sequences were filmed in the theatres.

There is no plot to speak of. Simply, a young woman goes to the circus, being handed a flyer about the Aerialist and persuaded by a sad clown to go to watch the act. She goes in and is fascinated by the Aerialist, who performs perfectly until he looks at the young woman, misses his grip and falls. The young woman goes to help him but sees that he falls through a fall-breaker and she follows.

The young woman meets a guide who leads her through many of the performances, all of them spectacular and gymnastic, eventually finding the Aerialist and being united with him up on the trapeze, doing performances with him.

The main value of the film is seeing the particular acts by the performers of the Cirque du Soleil.

There is the advantage of seeing them in close-up, a different experience from the real life responses in the theatre. Despite the close-ups, one imagines that at an actual performance, the different sequences are more spectacular.

Audiences who want something to occupy the mind may find acts less interesting, fairly repetitious, and not having an always clear purpose.

However, by contrast, audiences like who love detail, in colour and costumes, and spectacular circus performances, will be more than satisfied.

Somebody noted that this is a 90 minute commercial for the circus – and it works for many who would be determined to go to Las Vegas to see the Circus for themselves.

The film was written and directed Andrew Adamson’s whose work includes two of the Shrek films, the Two Narnia films and Mr Pip.