In this, my farewell column for the Maine Sunday Telegram at the end of 30 years, it is gratifying that destiny has led me to review a superlative film like "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep." Lovers of "E.T.," "Free Willy" and "King Kong" will love this wonderful family fantasy film. Over the first half, it presents itself as simply a well-constructed story, but it then ascends rapidly to consuming suspense as its lovable but often scary monster comes under attack by heavy artillery. It's 1942, with the German armies occupying most of Europe. On the rocky banks of that great Scottish lake called Loch Ness, young Angus MacMorrow (Alex Etel) finds a strange, rock- encrusted, football-sized object. In wonderment, he brings it secretly into the large estate where his mother, Anne (Emily Watson), works as housekeeper and his older sister, Kirstie (Priyanka Xi), also abides. Soon enough a purplish, lizard-like being hatches. A harshly loud little monster, it bears webbed feet and a horse-like snout and it loves water. Angus names it Crusoe. Ominously, it begins eating at a startling pace and each good meal causes it to quadruple in size overnight. Keeping it a secret as it crashes through the mansion is tricky. It will be learned that Celtic legend tells that Crusoe is the latest in an endless succession of a Loch Ness amphibian species of mixed gender that bears just one egg at its life's end. Complicating matters is that British soldiers are billeted in the house, under the command of Capt. Hamilton (David Morrissey). The official reason for this is that they're to watch for German subs prowling the loch. The men, however, suspect that Hamilton's influential father got him a nice, safe, far-from-the- front assignment. Regardless, Anne actually is rather taken by this rakish, dashing officer, at least at first. Meantime, Angus' ally turns out to be the new handyman, Lewis Mowbry (Ben Chaplin), as well as Kirstie, who enthusiastically aid him in maintaining the cover-up of Crusoe. The personable Mowbry, actually, has a meritorious military record, much to Hamilton's jealousy. Mowbry will vigorously enter the scheme to protect Crusoe from being seen by the British regiment, because he suspects they will immediately turn their cannons on the gargantuan beast if they discover it. Little Angus is charmingly filled out by director Jay Russell's sensitive perceptions of a 9-year-old's conflicts and urgencies, skillfully avoiding the sentimentalism buttons, even when the boy pines over his daddy, of whose death in the war he is not even aware. The pompousness and presumptuousness of the military group set up the villain, even as the sympathetic victim, Crusoe, is given a charm and a fearsome quality all at once. Faltering only a wee bit in a few low-energy scenes between crisis sequences, this is a masterful film that has a fine sense of its balance between old-timey themes and modern special effects. It fine-tunes with a mix of artistry and honesty of technique in just-plain storytelling, which is irresistibly appealing. 'GREAT DEBATERS' POWERFUL A beautiful expression of ideals and aspiration, based on a true story, "The Great Debaters" is roughly formed out of events in 1935. Deep into the Depression, the all-black Wiley College in East Texas, under the will and drive of Melvin B. Tolson, developed a top-quality debating team ready to challenge any and all. A film of profound dimension over the broad canvas of American racism, it elucidates on themes we'd long since thought had been exhausted for further comment. But this is 1935 in the Deep South and the film delivers perspectives not seen before on screen. Indeed, it's just that avoidance of such elements in a white-dominated society, consciously or not, that is the broad picture in this narrative. Director-star Denzel Washington, in an astute casting of two of Hollywood's most powerful African-American performers, casts himself and Forest Whitaker as the film's mesmerizing generators of screen power. His teenage characters are mostly composites, studiously portrayed. With the unbridled will and sense of purpose of a Broadway choreographer, Tolson (Washington) conducts his debating team tryouts with "Debate is blood sport!" passion. With consummate efficiency, he sifts out four, these comprising the quick-witted ladies' man Henry Lowe (Nate Parker), the dedicated and persevering Hamilton Burgess (Jermaine Williams), diligent James Farmer Jr. (Denzel Whitaker – no relation to either star) and, startling everyone, a rare female debater, Samantha Booke (Jurnee Smollett), an aspiring lawyer in a state that has none of either in persons of color. The students, mostly impoverished and rural by background, have already molded themselves as education-driven individuals, courteous, neatly dressed, self-directed. They are well familiar with quotations from D.H. Lawrence and James Joyce, not to say a plenitude of Latin phrases. The debate team will ascend to an 8-0 win record. But at one point, the grotesque head of bigotry shows its frightening features. Seems James' college lecturer father (Forest Whitaker) accidentally ran over a white farmer's pig and he's threatened by rednecks. When Tolson's militancy as a labor organizer, possibly a Communist, is learned, the whites are inflamed. Soon after, Tolson and his team, on their way to a debate, witness the aftermath of a lynching, barely getting away with their own lives. The tragedy will inspire them to raise their verve and spirit to take on Harvard. (In actuality, they never faced Harvard.) Fact is, the film suggests, we have addressed too much of the physical oppression of blacks and almost nothing of the intellectual. Boldly, it takes on a competition that is solely of the head. It depends entirely on its characters for energy. They are superb, generating power in the point-counterpoint in their relationships with each other outside the debates. In his effort at drama and impact, Denzel Washington has raised awareness of issues that should never have died. This is film critic Marty Meltz's last review for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. He can be contacted at: filmscritic325@hotmail.com

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