Water For Elephants (2011)
A very good friend of mine recommended the book to me a while back, and at the time I didn’t get a chance (nor the money, or time) to get the book and read it. Later, when the film was announced, she requested I read the book again, claiming I was not allowed to see the film till the book was read. I have to thank her for that, at least… if I had seen the film first I might not have read the book at all.
Don’t get me wrong, the film wasn’t awful, but it just wasn’t something that would inspire me to read the original material had I not read said original material before. The story is simple enough: it’s the Great Depression, and final year vet student Jacob (Robert Pattinson) walks out of his final exam after hearing news of his parents’ deaths, and jumps a circus train in the middle of the night. Starting out with simple jobs like cleaning the stable car and feeding the animals, Jacob sets eyes on Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) the beautiful woman who works the horse act, and meets August (Christoph Waltz), the ring master and Marlena’s temperamental and dangerous husband.
I will try to spend the majority of this reviewing Water For Elephants as a standalone film, not as an adaptation of a book. I’ll mention the latter at the end, however, because it is important. I have avoided circus-based films and books for nearly 6 years because of a documentary I saw when I was about 15 that put me off them for good. I’m someone who can’t – in any way shape or form – handle animal cruelty. I just can’t. It makes me sick, it makes me cry and it makes me hate humanity with a burning passion. And for those who are ignorant of this fact, circuses did not treat their animals well at all. So I was reluctant to go near this book and film at all. Fair warning for those who are like me with the animal cruelty thing: this film does have it, it does show it, and it’s not pleasant.
I feel the need to defend Robert Pattinson’s honor in this film. I’m a Twihater, and have been since the moment tweens got a hold of the book (one year after I read it and loved it and converted about 20 people to it, you know, BEFORE it was cool) and they made it into this horrendous excuse for a vampire movie. But I absolutely hate how some actors are judged by one role they had, by everyone. Robert is a brilliant actor. If you have ever seen Remember Me (and I highly recommend it, review pending) you will understand what I mean. The fact that the boy got the shit luck of being cast as Edward Cullen is not his fault, and it shouldn’t define him as an actor. He is very good in this film. Jacob is a difficult character to pin down and he got him right to a tee. I’m also a huge fan of Reese Witherspoon.
Christoph Waltz, I won’t lie, scares the living daylights out of me. Ever since I was forced to watch Inglorious Basterds (don’t recommend it, review never pending) he has scared the living daylights out of me. He is brilliant in the role of the most terrifying, heartless character, so he was perfect as August. You know an actor is good when he can scare you and make you hate him. I pity him somewhat though, because now the poor man will be typecast as the “villain” in pretty much everything (he’s already got a track record with The Green Hornet, Basterds and now Water For Elephants).
The way the film portrayed circus life was well done, in my opinion. Yes, it was based on a book, but many things that are based on something have a habit of glossing over the ugly parts and prettifying them for the cinema. The life shown in this film was not easy. People had little food, they had crammed quarters, they worked crazy hours in horrid conditions and it showed. It was one of the things that pleased me in this film, that they decided not to glorify the life of a circus person.
Now, I did say that I would touch on the fact that this is an adaptation later in the review, so here we are. It’s not the worst adaptation I’ve seen, but it not the best. I’m not sure why, but I found it more annoying that they changed the small details than the larger ones; the fact that they missed a few key characters didn’t bother me as much as the fact that they got Jacob’s first son’s name wrong. Seriously, guys, seriously? Was it so hard to keep a NAME the same? It also really bothered me how they did the ending. It was accurate, I grant you, but it was over done in the film compared to how it was in the book. In the book it was so powerful because of how simple it was, in the film it lost that power due to creative liberties.
All in all not a bad film, at all, even though it looks like this review shoots the whole thing down. A solid 6/10 for me, and a very slight chance that I’ll ever watch it again. It’s not for everyone, though. Like I mentioned a few times already, the animal aspect is something the film does rather well. If you’re like me and can’t handle watching innocent animals be starved and beaten, then maybe avoid this film (and the book as well, potentially). It’s definitely not a kid’s film, don’t go in thinking it’s a circus movie for the family. Circus movies, if based off good stories, are not family movies. Ever.
