A young American tourist couple stop by a Scottish pub for a drink and spy a copy of the famous “Nessie” photograph on the wall.  Was it real?  Was it a hoax?  Oh, it was a hoax all right, assures one of the locals.  And he’s certain about that, because he knows someone who saw the real thing…

So begins the Fried Green Tomatoes-like narrated structure of The Water Horse, a fantasy saga about one boy’s friendship with the monster of Loch Ness during the early years of World War II.  Only, unlike Fried Green Tomatoes, this film is about as wholesome and homespun as you get.  Bryan Cox, as that old codger in the pub, narrates the film with appropriate aplomb, and guides us through the story of young Angus and his mum.

Angus’ dad, you see, has been off to the war for a good number of months.  While Angus marks the days off a calendar in his dad’s old workshop, pining for the promised day when Dad’s tour is up, Anne MacMorrow has given up the pining for good reason.  And while she hides certain truths from her son, Angus gets busy hiding something else from her.

You see, while Angus was down by the seashore one day—collecting shells and battling his fear of water—he discovered something very, very interesting: a link to the legendary Water Horse, a magical beast capable of great bursts of growth.  Only one of them can be alive at a time, and just before each one dies it reproduces itself by leaving a single egg behind.

It’s the Water Horse that lurks in Loch Ness, and Angus helped put it there.  Naturally, he’s not so keen on mom finding out.

I remember keeping secrets from my mom, too.  Of course they were petty little stupid things, like the pencil-shaving cigarettes that we’d hack over out in the treehouse, or the secret club we’d built in a shed behind an abandoned house.  Dangerous enough things in their own rights, but certainly not on the scale of Godzilla!

As I got older, my list of secrets grew more profoundly disturbing, and much more monstrous.  Certainly, I thought, I could never tell anyone about such things.  I was even embarrassed to talk to God about them.

Finally, when I was about 35, one of my professors finally challenged me to spill the beans.  I was finished, I thought.  We’ve all seen what happens when men in ministry get trapped in sexual indiscretion.  Meltdowns.  Disgrace.

But a funny thing happened with me.  Divulging my secrets before they overwhelmed me on their own destroyed their power over me.  I connected with my future wife shortly after that, and we have never—ever—had any secrets between us.  None.  Whatsoever.

And that’s the kind of freedom that God wants us to have.  No secrets.  No need for them.

Angus and Anne also learn this lesson about secrets, and the fears connected with them.  And when the time comes for Mom to meet Angus’ monster—and for Angus to learn about Mom’s little secret, too—healing takes place.

The Water Horse is a great little family film that feels a lot like Bridge to Terabithia, also from Walden Media, and also released earlier this year.  Walden is doing a great job of adapting wonderful little books into solid, enjoyable films that the whole family can feel comfortable watching.

And if dad learns a little thing or two from Angus about managing the monster in the shed, then so much the better…