Water for Elephants (***)
Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz, Hal
Holbrook, Paul Schneider, Jim Norton, Mark Povinelli
Seen: May 21st 2011
*** Out of ****
On a rainy evening while a circus is closing up an old man (Holbrook)
is found hanging around the entrance by two of the circus employees. They help him
inside to have him wait for someone from his home to come pick him up, but when
he starts talking about the Benzini Brothers’ Circus in 1931, Charlie
(Schneider) is intrigued, and asks him to tell his story. His tale goes back to
when he was a young man (Pattinson), just about to graduate from Cornel as a
veterinarian. His future is bright, his Polish parents are loving and caring,
and he even has prospects with the most beautiful girl in his class. When he
starts his final exam he is called from the class and told of his parents’
death in a car accident. His reaction to this is to disappear from his own
life, to run away. He jumps a passing train, not noticing who the train belongs
to, and is welcomed on board by Camel (Norton), a kindly older man, and a few
of his friends, all working for the Benzini Brothers Circus, whom the entire
train belongs to. The owner, August Rosenbluth (Waltz) almost has him thrown
off, but when Jacob desperately mentions his veterinary background, he is
granted a second chance.
In short order Jacob is the circus vet, quickly jumping the ranks in
the circus, joining August and his wife Marlena (Witherspoon) in their quarters
quite often for dinner or cocktails. As he gets to know August better it dawns
on him that his boss is an erratic man prone to violent outbursts, as he gets
to know Marlena better he slowly falls in love with her. August has men thrown
off the train for the smallest infringements, and even goes so far as to eject
men for inability to pay them, but Jacob is safe with his qualification: a way
for August to improve his act by keeping the animals healthy and getting in
newer bigger animals. When August buys an elephant for the circus, Jacob is the
one to get August past the idea of torturing the animal for its obedience, but
not before some very cruel handling of Rosie the elephant. Jacob continues the dangerous
game of pursuing Marlena, and eventually things come to a point of revelation, August
explodes, and Jacob is lucky to escape alive.
The movie is based on Sara Gruen’s bestselling novel, which I’ve not
read, but it feels like it could be an epic read, possibly more so than the
movie, which sadly feels a little shallower than the producers might have hoped
for. Pattinson is reasonably good at bringing Jacob to life, creating a
character one can root for. This fuels my suspicion that no-one can act in a
Twilight movie, as I believe Kristen Stewart to also be a good actress when she
steps away from anything Twilight. Waltz is quickly turning into a typecast
caricature of evil, as fleeting moments of his portrayal of Col. Hans Landa in
Inglourious Basterds surface here, but he soon loses his intriguing villainous edge
as he goes over the edge into just another bludgeoning murderer, I’d like to
see him doing something different soon. Witherspoon seems good for the role,
but I felt this nagging sense that she didn’t capture Marlena as she could
have; maybe her role as June Carter in Ring of Fire was a fluke, maybe she is
really suited to more... fluffy roles; maybe. One thing I have to mention is
that one line from the movie, no matter how seriously stated, has me chuckling
every time: “The Benzini Brothers? That’s
one of the most famous circus disasters of all time...”. Honestly, every
time I hear that line I’m stifling laughter. Despite this, Water for Elephants
is an entertaining movie in the old school vein, aiming at a feeling of
something like a Gone With the Wind saga, which it doesn’t really miss by far
(and it’s much shorter than 3.5 hours).
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