Emily Watson and Ben Chaplin in The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep

Waterhorse is one part Eragon and one part Flags of our Fathers and one part Masterpiece Theater. Although this fable contains more cliches than a politicians speech, it still manages to charm.

As the movie opens, a couple of young American tourists are staring at the famous, bogus, photograph of the Lochness monster in a Scottish pub. An old local man offers to tell them the story about it all. They listen and the plot begins in World War II. A young boy, Angus, finds a blue glowing rock that ends up being a dinosaur egg. The egg hatches and the boy and dinosaur, named Crusoe, have a few adventures in the manor home where his mother is a maid and his father was the handyman before going off to war. Eventually Crusoe gets too big and is moved to the loch. A battalion of English soldiers move into the manor home and establish a base to watch for any possible German submarines entering the loch. The final scenes are an exciting confrontation between the soldiers and Crusoe.

Where as the movie's selling point is the CGI dinosaur, the real emotional impact comes from the characters. Angus misses his dad terribly. He marks his calendar to the day his dad will come home. His mother has a secret that she keeps from him. A new handyman arrives who has some emotional baggage of his own. The officer in charge has the hots for Angus's mother but she and the new handyman are attracted to each other from their first meeting. This, of course, causes some friction between the men.

Watson and Chaplin are great! They have very little dialogue yet convey so much emotion. They hold themselves in ways that speak volumes about their wounds. Although Angus is the starring role, Watson and Chaplin ground the movie in reality. This is a blessing and a curse. They garner more emotional attachment than the boy and the dinosaur. When Angus's mother finally sees the water horse the movie hits a snag. Watson is playing a woman very grounded in reality, so when she becomes involved in the fantasy aspect of the movie it is like Howard's End meets Jurassic Park.

I am not sure if this makes sense, but the director and cast did too good of a job. I could have enjoyed this movie even without the computer animated sea monster. The characters are strong enough to carry this movie without it.

Did you enjoy Eric's review? +3 -0

Alex Etel in Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.

I do agree with you Eric that the human characters are strong enough to carry the movie on their own.  They could have played up the love story and made a decent movie out of it.  I also thought they could have made the Water Horse be just a figment of Angus' young imagination as a way of his coping with the loss of his father at sea. 

Where I think you're wrong Eric is when you say the mom and the handyman garner more emotion than Angus.  It's easier to relate to the emotion between her and him than it is between Angus and Crusoe, but the emotional center of this story is Angus coming to grips with his father's death.  I think the reason the movie is shown as a story being told by an old man is so that you can doubt the existence of the Water Horse, but still believe that it was that year when Angus experienced the emotions that he experienced.

I also disagree Eric when you say that the new officer has the hots for the mom.  Don't forget this is Scotland in the 1940s when an aristocratic officer would find a housekeeper far beneath him.  I found his attitude towards her to be more patronizing than of a sexual nature, as if he knew what was better for her and her son than she did.

The setting of the movie also plays a big part of the story.  The loch and the mountains around it are absolutely stunning and made me want to visit Scotland.  It's filmed to be as picturesque as possible and it looks like a hell of a nice place to grow up.

Of the main cast only Brian Cox was actually born in Scotland.  Chaplin, Watson and young Alex Etel do a passable Scottish accent but it slips quite often.  It doesn't hurt the story, but it is definitely noticable at times.

The creature itself is well done and adds some nice humor, especially when it's small and running around the house. They could have made this movie without it, but it wouldn't have been as much fun.

Did you enjoy Scott's review? +2 -0