A mysterious fair come to a small community in the countryside, which could make real the illusions of two kids.
Director: Michael Ritchie
Stars: Joel Grey, Barnard Hughes, Jean Louisa Kelly.
Michael Smuin ... choreographer
Watched online, ok print.
13 songs in the Soundtracks, all Music by Harvey Schmidt, Lyrics by Tom Jones, including Try to Remember, used almost as an afterthought for the closing where El Gallo & cie are driving to the next venue.
The antecedent to this film is the longest running stage play in the US: off-Broadway 1960-2002, revival 2006-2017. But it was set in a small theatre with a semi-circle stage. So what did this director do? Opened it up to the wide prairie. I suspect the charm of the show was being near charismatic stars like Jerry Orbach or Kristin Chenoweth; here we get very little charisma, even when the actor is capable of it (JLK was compelling in Mr. Holland's Opus).
IMDb trivia: "The movie was filmed in 1995, and shelved for five years. The released version was re-edited by Francis Ford Coppola with the consent of director Michael Ritchie." and "The film's running time was 110 minutes before being whittled down to 85 minutes for theatrical release. Many of the deleted scenes are available in the special features section of the 2001 MGM DVD release, and director Michael Ritchie's reassembled original cut can be seen in its entirety on the limited edition 2015 Blu-ray release."
The story appears to be yet another "there's no place like home" tale, but never done as well as Oz ('39). There's no magic here, just deception, all geared toward making the local girl & boy feel like they've tasted the big city without going there, and feeling that the big bad world is just out to get them, just because this local carny was. I guess the dads got what they paid for (an adventure to unite the children and end their artificial feud).
Big shrug from me.
distr. UA, dir. Ritchie; 6-
