‘cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away” has a fair amount in common with “The Nutcracker.” Both follow young couples in a fantasy land populated by surreal, acrobatic creatures. Both are also majorly lucrative: This film draws on seven Las Vegas-based live Cirque shows.
For my money (a lot less for a movie ticket than the ballet), “Worlds Away” is the more entertaining holiday option. You know that interminable part of “The Nutcracker” where various dessert items dance around? This cavalcade of psychedelic eye candy is sort of like that — except instead of coffee and candy canes, these suggest jalapeno, peyote and that lethal sea-urchin sushi.
The thin plot in “Worlds Away” sees a woman (Erica Linz) at the circus lock eyes with a hunky trapeze artist (Igor Zaripov); distracted, he falls, taking her with him into a dreamlike alternate universe. Blue-skinned dancers contort underwater; a shambling clown lounges in an easy chair while on fire.
Perhaps, I thought as I watched four young women stack into a pyramid with their legs flipped over their heads like scorpions, this is the netherworld where Olympic gymnasts who don’t win the gold get sent by their trainers.
There’s also a substantial Beatles segment, and though director Andrew Adamson drops it awkwardly into the middle, I don’t think I’ve seen a more spot-on visual rendition of “Octopus’ Garden.”
Still, this 3-D sideshow of wacky human feats isn’t for everyone. If whimsy gives you hives, you probably won’t enjoy the tricycle riding around powered by little yellow boots.
But in a movie season — and a month — filled with so much gunfire, bloodshed and human despair, it’s refreshing to sit back and bask in the sheer joy with which these brightly costumed, stunningly agile performers navigate fire, water and air.