Title: The Last Circus

Director: Alex De La Iglesia

Finding a director who wants to introduce a personal, political message into a comedy that features strange characters is not common, but Magnet Releasing seemed to do so with Alex De La Iglesia. His childhood and personal life seem to define his upcoming film ‘The Last Circus,’ which he also wrote. While he wanted to incorporate his pain, cruelty and love into the personalities of his characters, Iglesia’s devotion to them unfortunately took away from the overall story.

‘The Last Circus’ follows Javier (played by Carlos Areces as an adult) throughout his life in the circus. As a child in 1937, Javier watches his father, a happy clown, being dragged away by a militia during a performance to help fight in the Spanish Civil War. Affected by the fact that his father subsequently was held as a prisoner, Javier becomes a sad circus clown in 1973. While he befriends many of the other circus acts, Javier must endure the abuse of the happy clown, Sergio (portrayed by Antonio De La Torre).

Javier also must watch Sergio abuse his wife Natalia (played by Carolina Bang), one of the circus’ acrobats. After falling in love with Natalia, Javier tries to rescue her from her violent husband, which only makes Sergio even angrier. Natalia is unsure what to do, as she still cares for Sergio, but also becomes attracted to Javier.

Iglesia has said he wanted to set ‘The Last Circus’ in 1973, as Spanish leader Francisco Franco was giving up his control over the country. Iglesia, who was eight that year, has described the time as a confusing nightmare, and he perfectly brought his childhood struggle to the story. Javier and Sergio are both struggling to survive the terrible lifestyles they have endured, and they balance each other as they deal with their problems. They both seek salvation in entertaining families while performing with the circus and in their love for Natalia. Iglesia, who also wrote the film’s screenplay, brought an interesting take to his two male lead characters, showing that everyone takes on a different personality to redeem their souls.

The director seemed to especially pour himself into Javier; Iglesia has said he made ‘The Last Circus’ to rid the pain from his own soul. He added that he feels hurt from his past, and longs for a happy life. Javier seemed to turn to the sad clown role to redeem himself for not being able to save his father when he was a child. He also wants to connect to Natalia to form a happy relationship, but his anger over his father’s imprisonment held his happiness back.

Natalie also represents another side of Iglesia. She is aware of her guilt of loving both Javier and Sergio, and knows that while she wants to love both, it’s not possible. She tries to make both Javier and Sergio happy, even if it means giving up her own happiness. Iglesia has said that he not only wanted to make ‘The Last Circus’ to make his audience laugh, but to also heal the wounds of his childhood. He struggled to find a balance between the two tasks.

While the characters are unique in the fact that they represent different aspects of Iglesia’s personality, the actual story of ‘The Last Circus’ is quite eccentric. During the beginning of the story, the audience will surely feel bad for Javier and understand his pain as he watches his father being taken away by the militia. But as the movie continues and the audience is introduced to Javier as an adult, he quickly starts acting like Sergio and the militia, who he despises. Javier uses crazy, unusual antics, such as attacking Sergio, to release his pain. His behavior becomes so erratic that it seems like Iglesia lost his focus of wanting to show how people deal with pain to instead feature continuous stunts and fights.

Iglesia had good intentions in wanting to showcase the real problems people face in what’s supposed to be a fun, family-friendly environment. While he succeeded in injecting some of his own personality into each of his lead characters to show what living in Spain was really like in 1973, he presents the overall plot-line in a peculiar way, which unfortunately defeats the movie’s entire message.

Technical: C+

Overall: C+

Written by: Karen Benardello