Movie Review: The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep

This period-piece film of magic and friendship, based on the book The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith, opens the imagination of children of all ages to the mythical Loch Ness Monster, the perils of World War II, and the bonding of relationships.

The story begins in a present-day Scottish pub where old Angus MacMorrow (Brian Cox) is entertaining a vacationing couple (Jessica and Matthew Kaczorowski) with a tale about his childhood. He tells them how as a young boy he found an object on the beach that turned out to be an egg, from which hatched an amazing creature that he learned was a Water Horse - but he couldn't tell anyone about it. The eager tourists want to hear the whole story, so Old Angus, drinking his ale, spins his yarn.

In a quick flashback to 1942, the narrative explains why Young Angus (Alex Extel) is a bit of an outsider and keeps to himself. Having lost his father Charlie MacMorrow (Craig Hall) in a World War II naval battle, he has only his older sister Kirstie (Priyanka Xi) and his mother Anne (Emily Watson) for companionship. He compensates by adopting the mysterious creature as a pet, happy to have a new friend, whom he names Crusoe, and even more excited to have a secret, if only for a short while. The creature grows very quickly, making it hard to hide, which adds to the problem of secrecy. Angus decides to let his sister and the handyman Lewis Mowbray (Ben Chaplin) in on the secret, because Crusoe is causing havoc in the grounds and household.

This plot can let your imagination run riot, which is the fun of it. The story's appeal is its simplicity; it is straightforwardly about the relationships between a family of people and one strange animal, and the effect the creature has on that family. It taps into the universal themes of magic and friendship when the creature, as it grows, becomes a beautiful metaphor for the relationship Angus once had with his father. Crusoe helps Angus grow from a young child caught in a war-torn United Kingdom towards maturity and the ability to accept realities.

Article Author: Gerald Wright

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