Friday, April 22, 2011 at 7:30PM Movie Review - 'Water for Elephants'
| Water for Elephants
Starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, and Christoph Waltz
|
Mmmm, what a delicious combination of cinematic ingredients! Add beautiful actors, stunningly rich production design, transcendent cinematography, glittering 1930s costumes, deceit, betrayal, love, lust, and trained animals, mix them up in an enormous circus tent, and voila! You have Francis Lawrence’s twisted little joy ride of a behind-the-big-top drama, Water For Elephants, the story of a young man beginning an unexpected, after college life.
The film begins in the somewhat cliché tradition of The Notebook and The Green Mile, but introducing us to the much aged Jocob Jankowski, (Hal Holbrook) standing in a circus parking lot long after hours. At first glance, it seems the old man may have lost a few screws over the years. As the circus’ owner, played by Paul Schneider, prods him with questions however, he soon finds that not only is the old man lucid, he has quite a story to tell, namely, the great tale of one of the greatest circus disasters in history.
Ordinarily, an introduction like this would have immediately turned me off due to it’s innate here-we-go-again quality. There is something different about this film though: the almost surreal picture quality, the sincerity with which the opening scene is directed and performed, and the few juicy dialogue lines of intrigue, excited me enough to kick off my shoes, curl up in my seat, and settle in for the two hour escape.
And what an escape it is. Nearly every single scene is richly layered with action, meaning, and a host of scenic elements for your eyes to dart to. In addition, the wide landscape scenes are grand enough to take your breath away, and it isn’t just because they are beautiful. Barreling down the tracks on a steaming locomotive beneath the vast, moon lit night sky was the perfect illustration of the feeling of a life beginning and the excitement for the journey ahead. Such is the journey of young Jacob, played by Robert Pattinson.
To tell you the truth, I really didn’t know what to expect from Hollywood’s dashing young starlet. Not to demean vampires in any way, but the artistic burden of playing a stoic, sexy, sparkling, member of the undeads has always seemed about as heavy as a few cloves of garlic. How would Mr. Pattinson fair when presented with a three dimensional, layered character who has suffered real pain, while experiencing love for the first time? Well, ladies and gentleman, I must say, I was thrilled to discover that our once pretty little blood sucker packs enough talent behind that chiseled face to truly become one of our next leading men. And thank goodness for him, or he would have been blown out of the water by the dynamic Christoph Waltz.
Waltz plays the tyrannical owner of the Benzini Brother’s traveling circus, August, who is a brutal as he is charming. What makes this character so frightening is that Waltz avoided the easy choice to make this man purely evil. By craftily layering the internal conflict, Waltz constructs a villain with the powerful combination of empathy and unpredictability. You don’t know whether this man is going to kiss you or kill you, and it works.
The one major problem with this film, most unfortunately, is the picturesque, elephant riding, ingénue, and Hollywood veteran… ring, ring! It’s Reese Witherspoon. That’s right folks, she phoned it in. The performance’s impact on the film is almost tragic. She returns Pattinson’s infatuation with boredom, and Waltz’s intimidation with half-hearted discomfort, making one wonder if she can ever return from the land of the half-wit romantic comedy.
That said, the film is not a wash because of her. If you do decide to make Water For Elephants your movie of choice for a night out, know that it is fairly easy to ignore Ms. Witherspoon and focus on all of the intricate production design surrounding her.
Reader Comments (10)
I loved this movie! I liked it even better than the book.
I disagree about Reese, I thought she was great as Marlena. I agree about Christoph being excellent. Also, I was really happy to see Rob away from Twilight. I loved him in Remember Me, and loved him here. I hope this stops the negativity that comes from some. I don't understand why some critics are being so . . . horrible, (some are so personal and he does not deserve that - no one does.) But it doesn't even make sense to me because his performance was so dead on, so perfect as Jacob.
The only think I think you forgot to mention was Rosie. I want to get me a pet elephant now! She is exquisite.
Michele
Thank you for this review. it seemed honest, and is appreciated. I too do not undersand the critics that continue to "hate" on Mr. Pattinson...Though it is starting to look obviously like they have no clue, or they are just trying to bring this wonderful young man down, because of the "too famous too fast, and we do not like it", mentality to them, that's really making them look stupid, because people are starting to see they have an alterior motive, just go on Twitter. What i like is that, what they are doing is backfiring, and those who might not have seen the movie, either not fans of any cast or have not read the lovely book, want to see it, because critics have crossed that line...Ask Tom Cruise he Twitted as much, lol.
I am sorry to have to say this, but, with the nice emotion in this review, and the attention to the film paid by the reviewer, this review, as much of the content on this site, is marred by the writing of relatively unschooled and unpracticed writers. Just in this review alone to refer to Pattinson as a "starlet," using a term meant for female performers [A young actress with aspirations to become a star: "a Hollywood starlet"], and to ask "How would Mr. Pattinson fair when presented..." when the word the writer wanted was "fare" as in how it would go for Mr. Pattinson. The site, which I generally like, is littered with these, and sometimes much worse constructions. The obvious love for films and film-going, and the sincere desire to share that passion with others is commendable, but the act of reviewing is not merely opining, but as evidenced on its face, is also a "writing" job. Without an editor, or more education, even the popularity of this site will not raise it above the mundane "fan" site, when, clearly, it has the possibility (and conceivably the hopes) to be more.
I don't know how we went from discussing Water for Elephants to a class-room on how to write a review. There is a time and place for everything. Regarding the harshness of some critic's; there are people out there who are so filled with envy that their own over inflated ego's have to tear the person down. Twilight may seem like fluff to many;but think what the actor's and author have achieved. People of all ages have been touched by the movies and young people are reading! Rob isn't the only one who has talent.
I read the book Water For Elephant and was eager to see how they could bring the movie to llfe. From the moment Hal Holbrook shuffled up to the trailer the theatre where I was was absolutely quiet. The usual buzzzzz was gone. The format they used to bring back to life the 1930's was magical, The movie's beauty overwelhm's the senses.
Christolph Walsh 's portrayal was spell-bindingly chilling. ..Sitting in the dark you were almost afraid to take your eye's off of him. The moments of charm were delivered with the coldness of a snake if you watched his eyes. In otherwords he played his part to perfection
Reece Witherspoon is one of my favorite actresses and her etheral beauty was fitting. I think her understated sensuality was a pleasant reliief from over done/over the top let's use sex to sell movies. This was supposed to be about two people who are thrown together by chance; and fall in love over their mutual love of an elephant named Rosie. Their attraction for each-other had to be kept hidden and resisted if they wanted to stay alive.. If there was anything wrong in Reece's performance it was that her character would have had to become alot harder to survive in that environment.
Like you I was tickled at Rob Pattinson getting a chance to show his growing talent. I like him in Remember Me, I thought he did a great job dealing with the raw emotions of a brothers suicide, 9/11 and a disconected father. He is showing a knack for choosing movies which stretch him, and expose him to fine established actors. I understand that he would asked them to practice his lines after the director called Cut1
KEEP DOING YOUR IMPARTIAL REVIEWS (REVIEWS AREN'T SUPPOSE TO BE CHARACTER ASSASINATION)
EVERYONE GO SEE THE MOVIE, IT'S GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Jeffrey Hardy
Your argument has been stated many times since Colin sold this site to ...the new owners. And it's been pointed out by more than one person that the site is littered with misspellings, incorrect uses of phrases, sophomoric writing....and what have you. The owner has already let us all know there are no editors, and apparently some of the writers don't even know how to use spellcheck...and they don't care. This doesn’t apply to every writer on the site….only some.
Olivia is the weakest writer/reviewer (using the terms veeery loosely) on the site and always has been. It's nothing personal....I don't know her from Eve (see what I did there...I used Eve because she's a woman...and not Adam. Starlet vs. Star). Her reviews smack of “College Creative Writing 101”. And I suspect (again...suspect, it's my opinion) that most of the other commenters that comment on her reviews are her girlfriends…because if anyone does leave a post to criticize her reviews, someone immediately leaves a comment defending her with such riveting arguments in the vein of “Olivia is TOO a good writer! YOU GO GIRL! EVERYONE GO SEE THIS MOVIE, IT'S GREAT!!!!!OMG OMG OMG!”.
While GTBP still remains a decent source of information, don’t expect it to rise to the level of professionalism you’re wanting. It won’t happen.
Ah Gary,
So nice to hear from you again!
Ha! Olivia, I assume you're talking to me. I've been called many things, but Gary isn't one of them.
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