Review of The Fantasticks (2000) by Trace F — 11 Jan 2012

You will either love it, or you will completely feel inferior to it, and therefore hate it...

Pros: Good casting with Jonathon Morris {plays a comedic role in Bread}, Jean L. Kelly, Joel Grey {best known recently for playing the "Wizard" in the Musical show: Wicked, and Joe Mcintrey. Very nice locations in Arizona. For a Low Budget Film, it still managed to have small little special effects that added to the simplistic but whimsical story.

Cons: The rest if the cast were to be desired, and the directing was quite unprofessional.

{look on youtube for: "Just a little girl fantasticks".

And you'll see the real reason why there's such an allure to the film.}.

Here's the Lowdown: It's a beautiful story, with wonderful actors and actresses, butchered by an inexperienced director and producers who definitely give it "cotton candy" like quality to the film. Which means:

You may like the underlying taste of it, the pretty appearances of some of the cast, but it isn't overly substantial, and is finished off much to quickly. {I still like to watch it on occasion though.}.

*Jonathon Morris plays the seductive, El Gallo, and definitely carries this film's rather weak plot along. {You can't blame me for this statement! Morris has the well crafted physique like those Grecian sculptures! This may explain why it's mostly females who love this film. And maybe more than one reason why the male population grumbles and feel less than masculine when watching the 'sword fighting scene'}.

Joel Grey serves up a stellar performance too, bringing his obvious experience in broadway influence to the film.

And Jean L. Kelly, and Joe Mcintrey serve as the re'latable victims, like when we were young and childish.

Still reading? Good, keep going.

***The film adaption of the Fantasticks could have been better, I assure you. But it still serves a good point, which is that despite all our romantic and immature thoughts. we all have to grow up one day. And through life's trials, it's the ones who come back to stand beside us, who can be trusted. And not the suave amorous posers, who seem to fulfill our dreams for the moment, but disappear as quickly as they came.

Summary: This play originally was based loosely on 'Les Romanesque'. Now I really don't know precisely what 'Les Romanesque' is about, but it sounds absolutely elegant, because I think it's an Italian opera, or something like that.

The story is about two fathers who use reverse psychology to get their children to fall in love; but, when the day comes when they want to marry them off, they don't know how to do it and not make their children suspicious of the set up.

So the fathers decide on hiring the ringmaster of the traveling circus to come and "rape" the girl, so that her boyfriend will save her, and give a reason for ending the feud.

Things get complicated when the "rape" is a little too successful though. The naive girl actually becomes enamored with the more sexy Jonathon Morris.

And the boy becomes more ambitious when he experiences the "thrill" of saving a damsel in distress.

Both children have their wishes fulfilled, and learn their lessons, becoming wiser and more mature human beings. Hope this helped, and you win a noble prize for reading my review!

~Musical Lover.