Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away
Starring:
Directed By: Andrew Adamson
Reviewed by Danielle Muir

[rating: 3.5/5]

This film solidly re-iterates the fact that this troupe is the best of their kind in the world.  However, for all its gorgeous visuals, breathtaking acts of flexibility and incredible set design, the filmic medium cannot recreate the adrenaline or magic of seeing their show’s live.

Let’s face it – when people buy tickets to the circus, most of them go for the tricks.  To watch performers fly, flip, contort and defy death in a particularly flamboyant manner.  Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away attempts to link each act together with a through-plot – ultimately ending in frustration as your desire to watch the tricks overrides the camera’s fixation on the lead actress.  The story is thin – a young starry-eyed circus goer (Linz) walks into ‘Circus Marvellous’, where The Aerialist (Zariopov) is about to perform on the trapeze.  Too pre-occupied with making eyes at the pretty young thing in the stands, he misses the bar and falls to the ground.  Luckily this is a family friendly movie, as instead of suffering a horrifically painful death, the sand sucks him and the girl into a foreign land filled with illuminated big-tops housing different acts of the Cirque Du Soleil.  Then ensues a search through each tent for the missing Aerialist.  All this is well and good, however ultimately a pestering distraction to more interesting footage.  In addition it’s way too cheesy to be taken seriously.

Just thought I’d get the negative out of the way so I can end on many highlights – in the same manner the film progresses.  The film is shot with breathtaking detail and a style that can only be described as one of grandeur.  It does justice to the intricate (mostly downright bizarre) costume and make-up designs, and the spectacular sets which become the performer’s playground.  The cinematography is stunning, and one can only shudder at how the crew tackled lighting and shooting at such an epic scale.  Even more impressively, the filming seems to have occurred at various live shows across the globe in front of an audience – therefore the co-ordinating and timing of each camera must have been impeccable.  From the superhero trampoline routine, to the spinning circles of death located in some kind of hellish torture universe and the serene tranquillity of the water-based acts, everything looks magnificent and the full impact of the show that could have been captured on film has been.  Except for cutaways to the girl looking lost.  But I’ve said my piece on that.

The way to best describe why Cirque Du Soleil should probably stick to live performances is this: in one of the more aggressive tent universes, there stands a giant contraption – two rings attached onto each end of a long metal beam.  With two performers standing in either ring akin to a rat in a wheel, the contraption spins in a full circle – causing the men to fly through the air as they reach the top of the spin.  They flip, glide, even skip rope at one point.  All while other performers are down below, enacting scenes of torture upon the poor chained Aerialist.

In the cinema, my palms became slightly sweaty.  Live, I doubt I would have been able to breathe.