It’s been said before, but it bears repeating: clowns are horrible, and are always up to no good. Few and far between are the films that will acknowledge this, which is why The Last Circus is welcome relief. Though marketed as a horror film, Circus is really a contest of neuroses that uses its outsized imagery to inflate its drama rather than steamroll it, though steamroll is a pretty good word to describe its cumulative effect. There is literally nothing that stands in the path of any of this film's characters that doesn't get brutally taken to task, but in the eye of this hurricane is a steady, calm focus on producing the biggest and most brutal possible center ring show imaginable, making another show all but impossible to retrieve from the wreckage.
After traumas endured in the Spanish civil war, Javier (Carlos Areces) grows up to become a sad clown, being one that isn’t funny and has a perpetual frown painted on his face instead of a grin. With an admittedly limited skill set, he takes up with a circus in the assist of Sergio (Antonio de la Torre), a happy but exceedingly cruel clown, who goes out of his way to humiliate Javier (an already simple task). The situation is escalated when he falls in love with Sergio’s wife Natalia (Carolina Bang), the beautiful acrobat who openly reciprocates Javier’s affections. With more at stake than mere sexual jealousy, two opposing visions of clowning go head to head, and push themselves closer and closer to the edge of the titular last circus.
Taking most of its visual cues from the work of Terry Gilliam (plenty of elephants and dancing bears to be seen), director Alex de Iglesia’s circus is a 24-hour affair, a constantly spinning swirl of lights and colors that’s always on the edge of crashing off the center both on-stage and off. Even if there was some ringmaster who was able to bring some order to the show, Javier is certainly not the person to do it. His quiet stare could easily be mistaken for that of a comic sidekick’s, but there’s a placidity there that goes too deep for any laughs to be drawn from it, before giving way into a degenerated mania that only Sergio could match, and Natalia, despite her muse, can't contain. Both of their mutilated, disfigured faces belie an even deeper tragedy, that perhaps only clowning could actually harness, if simply because it allows for a catch-all that normal modes of performance couldn’t contain. The Last Circus recognizes this, and it builds its pathos with makeup that reveals, rather than disguises, the inner nature.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The Blu-ray contains a "making of" featurette, as well as some behind-the-scenes and visual effects segments. There are also several promotional videos, being the U.S. trailer, the international trailer, and the international teaser/
"The Last Circus" is on sale October 18, 2011 and is rated R. Horror. Directed by Alex De La Iglesia. Written by Álex de la Iglesia. Starring Antonio De La Torre, Carlos Areces, Carolina Bang.
