The Invisible Circus

by CHRISTOPHER TOOKEY, Daily Mail

Cameron Diaz chooses courageously to mix big movie appearances with small, independent projects, but she should have avoided any involvement with this woefully naive investigation of hippie terrorism in the Sixties.

Adam Brooks's film The Invisible Circus is essentially a mystery, with an 18-year-old from San Francisco (Jordana Brewster) travelling to Europe in 1976 to find out why her older sister (Diaz) visited Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris before committing suicide in Portugal in 1969.

Along the way, the girl picks up her sister's old flame Wolf (Christopher Eccleston) who eventually spills the beans on why big sis threw herself off a cliff.

Frankly, the explanation comes as no surprise to the audience, many of whom will be wishing by the end that the dislikable younger sister would follow her sibling off a cliff and give us a rest from her earnestness. Miss Brewster lacks the acting ability to communicate her character's inner journey and the result is a painfully slow travelogue.

You'd think a character called Wolf would at least be charismatic, but a better nickname for Eccleston here would be Hangdog. It is doubtful whether any actor could avoid ridicule for the wig Eccleston wears during the flashbacks, which makes him look like Neil in The Young Ones. But even with a short back and sides, he looks as wooden and uncomfortable as some ghastly example of G-plan furniture.

Diaz radiates glamour in the flashbacks but can't manage passionate political commitment. She looks like a model faking an interest in the intricacies of sumo wrestling.

The Invisible Circus pretty much embodies the adjectives uninvolving and inconsequential.

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