'Water Horse' a monster mash of fun, fantasy
First and foremost, "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" is a fantastic children's adventure, an "E.T."-like tale of a young boy's unique relationship with a strange and wondrous creature.
Here's the part of "The Water Horse" I didn't expect. It spins one of the most effective, blatant anti-war themes of any movie I've seen in recent memory. Even more powerful than the recent films directly referencing Iraq or Afghanistan.
Did the filmmakers do this deliberately? Absolutely. But they are excellent storytellers and never allow the anti-war theme, added to Dick King-Smith's original story, to undermine the exciting, scary and heart-rending tale about a boy and his pet sea monster.
It begins as a fable told by an old man in a Scottish pub. A tourist couple buys him a drink in exchange for a story about the photo on the wall, a photo of the infamous Loch Ness sea serpent.
The old man (the original Hannibal Lecter, Brian Cox) speaks, and we're transported back to Scotland during World War II. There a wee lad named Angus MacMorrow (played by charismatic "Millions" star Alex Etel) anxiously awaits news of his absent father, a soldier off fighting the Nazis.
One day on the shores of Loch Ness, Angus finds an odd, egg-shaped rock and takes it home, unaware it will hatch into a water horse, a legendary creature said to be so magical, only one can exist on earth at a single time.
That information inexplicably comes from Lewis Mowbray (Ben Chaplin), a handsome, taciturn handyman employed by Angus' mother Anne (the radiant Emily Watson) to fix up the crumbling estate.
The egg hatches a strange aquatic creature that produces mesmerizing noises like a purring Mogwai from "Gremlins." A shocked and delighted Angus names his new friend Crusoe.
He hides Crusoe from his mom, but lets his sister (Priyanka Xi) and Mowbray in on his secret. Fun follows in frolicking scenes where the kids hide the rapidly growing Crusoe in the toilet and tub without Mom finding out.
The light atmosphere changes dramatically when British troops arrive at the house and place Howitzers around Loch Ness, under the pretense that German subs might enter. The Brit leader, the smug Captain Hamilton (David Morrissey), takes an inappropriate fancy to Anne.
By this time, Crusoe has grown so large that Mowbray and Angus let him loose in the lake. What you fear might happen does: Soldiers mistake Crusoe for a sub and start firing on the beast.
"The Water Horse" has several genuinely frightening moments, but none more so than when Crusoe, panicked by cannon fire, goes berserk and almost kills Angus.
We never see any actual war action, but the threat and fear of war become so oppressive, they destroy Anne's calm, confident front.
"There is no monster!" she cries to her son on the stormy banks of Loch Ness. "There is no magic!" All she sees, she says, is war and men saying insane things.
This scene delivers the anti-war message with the subtlety of a Howitzer shell: War kills the magic of life.
The real secret to why "Water Horse" works, I believe, is that director Jay Russell treats the monster, Crusoe, like an oversize pet dog.
Russell directed one of the most engaging canine movies of all-time, "My Dog Skip." His ability to project that magical human-canine bond onto Angus and Crusoe anchors the fantastical elements of this story so well that we forget the beast is a special effect, at least for this movie.
Normally, I despise films that employ flashbacks within flashbacks. This one didn't bother me at all.
What it did do was transport me back to a time when I believed in gentle monsters.
Through the beaming innocence of Etel, the most unaffected child actor currently working in films, the magic of life survives.
'Water Horse' a monster mash of fun, fantasy and anti-war sentiments
A wee lad named Angus (Alex Etel) befriends the Loch Ness sea monster in the fantasy "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep."
"The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep"
3½ stars out of four
Opens today
Alex Etel as Angus MacMorrow
Emily Watson as Anne MacMorrow
Ben Chaplin as Lewis Mowbray
David Morrissey as Captain Hamilton
Brian Cox as Old Angus
Written by Robert Nelson Jacobs, based on the book by Dick King-Smith. Produced by Robert Bernstein, Douglas Rae, Barrie M. Osborne and Charlie Lyons. Directed by Jay Russell. A Columbia Pictures release. Rated PG. Running time: 111 minutes.