If you follow me on Tumblr (or facebook or twitter) you'll know that I was really looking forward to seeing Water For Elephants. It was one of only four films that I listed as 'Looking forward to seeing in May' along with Something Borrowed, Pirates 4 and The Hangover Part 2.
The last trailer released moved me almost to the point of tears, then one of my closest friends told me it was like Titanic at the circus. All of this combined made me think that Water For Elephants was going to require a LOT of tissues and become this years weepie equivalent of The Notebook.
The story is told via reflection of Jacob Jankowski (Hal Holbrook) on his life as a younger man (Robert Pattinson) and how he inadvertently ended up joining the circus when his parents died. We're told that the circus he joined, The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, was renowned for being the most famous circus disaster of all time. The story continues to tell how Jacob became the vet for the travelling circus and in turn shows how he befriended the latest aquisition to the circus of Rosie the elephant, and how he fell in love with the ringmasters wife, Marlena (Reese Witherspoon).
As is usually the way with films we're really looking forward to, they inevitably don't live up to our expectations. I don't want to ruin the film for anyone so if you haven't seen it and you'd like to, please skip to the end of the spoiler alert.
*spoiler alert*
The thing that I felt severely let down by was the so called 'most famous circus disaster of all time'. Both the trailer and the opening sequence of the film tell us about this disaster. It's really not. I was expecting some kind of animal stampede, heavy casualties. Someone else I know was expecting a fire. Yes, the animals are let loose but there is only one casualty and that's the one person you want to be killed anyway. Where's the disaster? More importantly, where's the tragedy?
In my opinion you can't have a tragic love story (especially not on the scale of Titanic) without a death. Here, the main couple live happily ever after. There's nothing tragic about that. Sorry if I seem a little morbid. I'm not saying I wanted them to die, more that I'd been expecting it. I was convinced from the first trailer that Marlena would die in the 'circus disaster'. I was wrong.
*end of spoiler alert*
Having said all of that, I did think the film was beautifully shot and acted and I completely fell in love with Tai who played Rosie the elephant. She is brilliant, beautiful and completely amazing. The feats she performs are jaw dropping - no computer wizardry, check out Reese and Robert on the Graham Norton show (bbc iplayer http://tinyurl.com/3qogazp) to see for yourself - but even more impressive are her quiet moments, the scene with her and Jacob in the train carrage is breathtaking.
So overall I liked Water For Elephants and would recommend seeing it, I would just try to put thoughts of the 'most famous circus disaster of all time' out of your head and expect something a little less grand. 7.5 out of 10.
Viewing Date - 5th May 2011
UK Release Date - 4th May 2011
Cast Overview:
Reese Witherspoon ~ Marlena
Robert Pattinson ~ Jacob
Christoph Waltz ~ August
Paul Schneider ~ Charlie
Jim Norton ~ Camel
Mark Povinelli ~ Kinko/Walter
Hal Holbrook ~ Old Jacob Jankowski
Director ~ Francis Lawrence
Writer(s) ~ Richard LaGravenese (Screenplay) and Sara Gruen (Novel)
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