Water For Elephants

Director: Francis Lawrence
Writers: Richard LaGravenese, Sara Gruen (author)
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz
Release Date: April 22, 2011
Length: 2 hours

Teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson takes on the lead role of Jacob Jankowski in the film adaptation of Sara Gruen’s bestselling circus novel, Water For Elephants, opposite Academy Award Winners Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz. The elderly Jacob (Hal Holbrook)’s son has just forgotten to pick him up from his nursing home and take him across the street to the circus, where all the other residents are. Jacob decides he will go to the circus himself, even though he is not allowed with his age and condition. When the men working for the circus find Jacob, he realizes the circus is over and is invited inside by Charlie O’Brien (Paul Schneider), who is the owner of this circus. Jacob tells Charlie he worked on two different circuses when he was younger. Curious by Jacobs story, Charlie asks him to tell more and we go back in time to 1931, during the Great Depression when Jacob was twenty-three years old. During his final exams at Cornell Veterinary School, Jacob receives news that his parents have been killed in a car accident. When things couldn’t get any worse, he is told later that they were in major debt because they were giving people free services due to the draining Depression. This means all of their property belongs to the bank and Jacob has nothing left for him. Feeling lost, he freeloads onto a train that ends up being the traveling circus show, “The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show On Earth!”. He is quickly taken to meet the owner of the show, the intimating and crazy August Rosenbluth (Christoph Waltz), to find work. August makes Jacob the new veterinarian of the show, since they are in need of one. August is also the animal trainer, so the two are prepared to see each other more often. Jacob meets the gorgeous and alluring Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), the wife of August, and the star of the entire show. When August impulsively purchases an elephant named Rosie, believing it will gain the show much more money, he tells Jacob and Marlena he wants an act with Marlena and Rosie ready as soon as possible. As the odd trio work closer and closer together, Jacob becomes more attracted to Marlena and he also discovers just how maniacal August is and what he must do to protect Marlena, Rosie and himself. Gruen’s wonderfully creative and unique novel told a beautiful love story with just an incredible setting. Every technicality having to do with the setting of a circus in the 1930s is translated stunningly onto film such as the extravagant costumes worn by Witherspoon and dingy clothes worn by Pattinson and the workingmen. The set design of an old circus simply made me smile and really brought Gruen’s imaginative story to life. The fantastic backdrop of this story is enough for anyone to see the film. Adapting a novel to the screen is an incredibly difficult job because if you lean too far away from the original story, you have an unfaithful revision, but if the film is too faithful, people who’ve read the novel will be bored from knowing everything that’s about too happen. Being one of those people, I have a skewed take on Water For Elephants that not everyone will agree with. The film was a scene-for-scene completely accurate depiction of the novel, which should be great for any fan that hasn’t just finished reading the book. Besides my slight annoyance, screenwriter Richard LaGravenese superbly wrote the story for the screen that made the film a somewhat cheesy, but intriguing romance in a difficult time. To bring his and Gruen’s words to life was an interesting handful of actors. The powerful Christoph Waltz who scared millions in his spin-chilling role as SS Colonel Hans Landa, aka "The Jew Hunter" and it seems he’s only continuing to be cast as the villainous character in The Green Hornet, Water For Elephants and this fall’s The Three Musketeers. Although it’s unfortunate that the incredibly talented Waltz is always being cast in the same role, it is what he does best. He similarly gives the same happy petrifying performance as August, but this time he delves further into a much deeper character. As August is a Jewish schizophrenic husband and boss of the circus, you see Waltz play more of a monstrous person as opposed to a monster. Robert Pattinson has always been a great interesting actor despite the films that brought him into fame. However he similarly always plays the same character, the brooder. Although he does carry Water For Elephants very well and his chemistry with Witherspoon is quite strong, as someone who watches many of his films, I’m getting pretty tired of his repetitive constant pout. Witherspoon gives an oddly subtle performance in Water For Elephants excluding a climactic scene between her and Waltz. Although she is gorgeous and wonderful to watch in the incredible circus acts, the audience doesn’t connect or sympathize greatly with her character. Maybe it’s what she intended for Marlena, or what director Francis Lawrence intended for the story, but it ended up generating little intrigue. Lawrence adapts an extraordinary novel into a lovely film that everyone can enjoy. Water For Elephants is nothing astonishing but certainly a pleasure to watch.