KEY POINTS:
Herald Rating: * * *
Cast: Emily Watson, Brian Cox, David Morrissey, Ben Chaplin, Alex Etel
Director: Jay Russell
Running time: 115 mins
Rating: PG, some scenes may scare very young children
Screening: SkyCity, Hoyts
Verdict: A typical coming-of-age story filled with wonderful, moving performances
If, on the off chance you've been looking for an imaginative way to explain the mystery of the mythical Loch Ness Monster to your kids, then this charming family drama, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, has come along just in time.
Mostly shot in New Zealand, with Lake Wakatipu standing in beautifully for Scotland, this is the coming-of-age story of a young lad called Angus MacMorrow and his journey towards accepting the realities of life. Angus lives on a Scottish estate where his mother Anne (Emily Watson) is the housekeeper. Set during World War II, Angus' father is away serving in the Navy and is missed terribly by the whole family, but mostly by Angus.
Scrounging around the seashore one day, Angus finds a large egg. He takes it home and cleans it up and the next morning he finds the egg has hatched an ugly, mythical little creature (created by the team at Weta Workshop and Weta Digital) with an enormous appetite, called a Water Horse.
It soon becomes clear to Angus, as the creature goes from birth to adulthood in a couple of weeks that the idea of keeping the ravenous Crusoe in the bath isn't going to work. With help from his sister Kirstie (Priyanka Xi) and the new farm handyman, Lewis Mowbray (Ben Chaplin), the trio secretly releases Crusoe into the lake.
The Water Horse initially feels like he's been kicked out of the house but he comes to love his new home, even encouraging Angus to overcome his fear of the water. All is well until the local Army troop billeted on the estate mistake Crusoe for an enemy submarine, and it's then up to Angus to find a way to save his new friend.
As you'd expect, actors Emily Watson, Ben Chaplin and Brian Cox give solid performances, but it's the young Alex Etel as Angus who really shines. His engaging performance and quiet anguish over his absent father is the underlying emotional core of this film, and he plays it brilliantly.
While this is a sweet, moving, almost old-fashioned tale, it also has a sense of familiarity. There is nothing startlingly new here, but the film has to be commended for including real themes of a serious note alongside the more mythical fairytale like side of the story.
