Water for Elephants | Review
Adapted from the best-selling book by Sara Gruen, ‘Water for Elephants’ is a beautifully old-fashioned tale. The story is standard: a young man falls in love with a married woman, and the husband is the young man’s boss. What isn’t standard is the way the story is told, through dialogue-driven scenes and beautiful music, as well as the interesting addition of a fourth character – an elephant by the name Rosie.
Jacob Jankowski (Robert Pattinson) is the young man who falls in love with the married woman, portrayed by Reese Witherspoon (‘Legally Blonde’). Jacob recently dropped out of veterinary school at Cornell University due to the tragic deaths of his parents. He’s run away from home and, through a twist of fate, ends up stowing away on the Benzini Bros.’ circus train, owned by August Rosenbluth (Christoph Waltz), the husband to Witherspoon’s Marlena.
August is a ruthless and cruel character, yet he softens up to Jacob when he finds out he’s a vet (sort of); he needs an animal doctor to make sure his starring animals are in tip-top shape. Jacob and Marlena are both animal lovers, whereas August mistreats and beats them. It is this bond over loving animals that perhaps drives Jacob and Marlena together, though it’s not emotionally obvious due to the lack of chemistry between the two leads.
In almost any film Robert Pattinson is in, I’m pretty sure he’s criticized for a lack of chemistry with his female counterpart. This can’t be a coincidence. ‘Water for Elephants’ is supposed to feature an emotional love story between Jacob and Marlena, but there’s no attraction felt in the film between the two of them besides physical interactions. Honestly, the lack of chemistry has to be because Robert Pattinson has trouble showcasing it on screen.
Though there’s zero chemistry between the two leads in the film, the love story is at least still interesting. The love story-aspect to ‘Water for Elephants’ doesn’t suffer from melodrama and cliches other romantic films feature, which is a plus. The film goes through the romance at a consistently slow pace, which attributes to the film’s lengthy 2-hour running time, but it’s at least better than a rushed and disjointed one.
The emotional aspect of the film actually stems from the animals featured in it. The first major animal is a starring horse named Silver suffering from an infection. It’s particularly sad to witness the inevitable fate of the animal. The second major animal in ‘Water for Elephants’ is the elephant itself, Rosie. August’s treatment of Rosie when she misbehaves is hard to watch.
The set-pieces of the film are absolutely gorgeous and stunning, including the circus tents and such. The technicality of ‘Water for Elephants’ and its use of real sets and animals, as opposed to computer-generated ones and special effects, is inspired and should be applauded. The sets effectively portray the depression of the 1930’s, as well as the interesting beauty of the circus.
For the most part Robert Pattinson portrays his character Jacob decently, and the same goes for Reese Witherspoon’s Marlena. Christoph Waltz (‘Inglourious Basterds’), however, once again does an amazing job at acting. Waltz’s portrayal of the ruthless August is reminiscent of his portrayal of “The Jew Hunter” from ‘Inglourious Basterds’, from which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
‘Water for Elephants’ is a beautiful film with genuine emotion from the aspects that feature the animals, but it’s overall lacking in chemistry between its two leads. Director Francis Lawrence (‘I Am Legend’ & ‘Constantine’) does a great job at utilizing real sets for the film, as well as for making a well-made film adaptation of a novel. Though a little too long, ‘Water for Elephants’ can only benefit from its lengthy running-time, and it avoids the cliches and mistakes of other films that feature romance.
