Film Review: ‘Cirque du Soleil: World’s Away’ is Visually Arresting Infomercial

Submitted by PatrickMcD on December 21, 2012 - 4:16pm

CHICAGO – Cirque du Soleil, which began with two street performers in Quebec in 1984, has grown into a multi-million dollar enterprise with shows on every continent and seven simultaneous extravaganzas in Las Vegas. The Vegas shows make up the storyline for “Cirque du Soleil: World’s Away.”

Rating: 3.5/5.0

The style of Cirque – that of an evolution in artsy, acrobatic big top performance – is an acquired taste, and fans of the concept will probably love the 3D film maneuverings of the various Las Vegas shows. But there is also a redundancy in that style, and because the narrative is spare, it does tend to feel like a circus parade infomercial of “visit exciting Las Vegas, and see these shows live!” It’s best to go in with an open mind and heart towards the Cirque zeitgeist, otherwise the piece just blends together, distinctively visual but a bit empty in the creative variation department. It’s almost silly to critically disrespect the Cirque impression, because of it’s athletic tribute to the luxury of what a human body can do, but the sameness is apparent and that can be a turnoff.

As indicated above, there is not much of a narrative. An outsider waif named Mia (Erica Linz) happens upon a glitzy circus in the middle of a nowheresville. She is entranced under the big top by The Aerialist (Igor Zaripov). In the midst of one of his difficult high wire moves, the performer falls to the earth, horrifying Mia and the crowd. But instead of landing hard on terra firma, The Aerialist falls inside a quicksand-like earth. Mia also seems to be falling for him, because she follows him into the soft pit.

She ends up in a etherial plane below, with circus tents among a cloud-like atmosphere. Within each of the tents is a Cirque du Soleil show, including all seven of the Vegas acts – “O,” “Mystére,” “Ka,” “Zumanity,” “Viva Elvis,” “Criss Angel Believe” and “The Beatles Love.” Mia disappears and reappears throughout the acts, still searching for the elusive Aerialist.

“Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away” opens everywhere on December 21st. See local listings for 3D theaters and show times. Featuring Erica Linz, Igor Zaripov, Lutz Halbhubner and Dallas Barnett. Written and directed by Andrew Adamson. Rated “PG”