Water for Elephants
Certainly not the greatest show on earth, Water For Elephants gets two stars - the elephant earns it one more.

Water For Elephants is adapted from popular Sara Gruen’s novel, and stars Robert Pattinson in a decidedly non-Twilight role. This is more Doctor Doolittle than Edward Cullen.

The film is set during the Great Depression, telling the story of promising veterinary student Jacob Jankowski (Pattinson) who suffers a personal tragedy and runs away from home. He unwittingly jumps onto a moving train which houses the Benzini Brothers circus. Jacob persuades sadistic ringleader August Rosenbluth (Christoph Waltz) to keep him on as a vet instead of “red-lighting” him – throwing him off the speeding train with little hope of survival.  Even though he could take his pick from the various female performers, Jacob begins to fall in love with beautiful showgirl Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), who also happens to be the boss’s wife. They both love animals, a sentiment not shared by August who is very fond of his bullhooks and whips. He treats his wife in much the same way as his four-legged charges, she is to be controlled and dominated.

Soon the ailing circus acquires a new star in Rosie, a charismatic but disobedient elephant. August hopes she will bring in huge audiences, but she is resistant to training. Jacob and Marlena look on in horror as August takes out his frustrations over the future of Benzini Brothers, and their growing romance, on Rosie. The circus threatens to collapse unless Rosie is fit to perform, and she seems more interested in running off to grocery shops and stealing champagne whenever possible. As a bond grows between Jacob and Rosie, he unearths a secret that could save the day for everyone.

So far, so Titanic/Moulin Rouge/The Notebook. Tai, the elephant filling the rather large shoes of Rosie, is fantastic, and out-acts everyone else in the film. Pattinson is flat in his role, heightened by the superior performance given by Hal Holbrook as the older Jacob. Holbrook’s scenes with Park and Recreation’s Paul Schneider bookend the main story but are more subtly acted than the rest of the film. Witherspoon is charming but bland, and Waltz recycles his famous turn in Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. There is a ménage a trois element to the scenes between the three leads which creates a subversive tension, but the confrontations that lead on from this are repetitive and left to their own devices, Pattinson and Witherspoon’s characters have little sexual chemistry (they performed as mother and son in a scene cut from 2004’s Vanity Fair, perhaps this dynamic suits them better).

Visually the film is stunning, and echoes Baz Luhrmann’s use of stylised grit. The music video background of director Francis Lawrence is obvious in the showmanship in the circus ring (he directed the video for the Britney Spears single ‘Circus’), and the dramatic shots that take place on the endless circus train. Sadly, the crucial climatic scene is let down by some dubious CGI.

Certainly not the greatest show on earth, Water For Elephants gets two stars – the elephant earns it one more.

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