A Two-Ring Circus

Water for Elephants

** out of ****

Directed by: Francis Lawrence

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz, Hal Holbrook and Tai the Elephant

Running time: 123 minutes

Back in the earliest days of the cinema, one wouldn’t have to try very hard to find a film featuring the boisterous theatrics of a circus, whether it be a thrilling daredevil stunt or the skills of a trained animal. These slices of life were shot on camera mainly to engulf the audience with a sense of dazzle and bewilderment.

The wondrous circus-set spectacle is now the background for Water for Elephants, based off of Sara Gruen’s impassioned page-turner. When the circus grandeur sets into the foreground, there is plenty of entertainment to go around. The feats of amazement, performed entirely by a troupe of real-life animals (no pesky CGI here, folks), are awe-inspiring. (Don’t worry: the credits claim that none of the animals were harmed during the production.)

Sadly, however, this means that the animals (especially Tai the Elephant in a tour de force as the brave, tortured Rosie) upstage the human performers. The high-flying circus grandeur is fiery, but the romance between Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon lacks any spark.

Using a similar flashback structure to the novel, the film is told from the viewpoint of a 93-year-old Jacob Jankowski (Hal Holbrook, as crisply crinkled as Tai). Speaking to a young circus manager (Paul Schneider), he narrates about how he fled from a life of privilege after his parents’ sudden deaths and joined the (fictional) Benzini Brothers circus just months before their famed collapse in Depression-era America.

Pattinson is the young Jacob (a character name change which is bound to perplex adamant Twilight fans) and has exceptionally little screen charisma, mixed in with flat line readings and blank expressions. However, to be fair, his tan is nice – another touch that is bound to throw off the "Twi-hards."

Tan and tangent aside, Pattinson’s Jacob has run away from practicing veterinary sciences in college. When the circus ringmaster, August (Christoph Waltz), finds out the student's scholarly talents, though, Jacob is assigned the task of training the Benzini Bros.' latest “star attraction,” a twelve-foot elephant named Rosie.

Meanwhile, when he isn’t teaching Rosie instructions in Polish, Jacob is wooing the other star of the circus, the transcendent Marlena (Reese Witherspoon). Unfortunately, she is married to the determined August, and the quagmire escalates.

The film’s scope is grand, encapsulating the same “small fish in a big pond” feeling that gave the novel a universal appeal. The circus atmosphere that Gruen’s bestseller soaked itself in is recreated in top-tier form for the film adaptation, thanks to David Crank’s intricately detailed art direction and luminous costume design courtesy of Jacqueline West.

While the set design is serene, there is a muddy elephant stampeding around the film. I am not referring to Rosie here, but the slight characterization, although I blame this less on Richard LaGravenese’s faithfully adapted script but on the terribly miscast A-listers present.

Witherspoon and Pattinson do little to enliven their roles, and the drama often feels stagnant due to a lack of passion between the actors: she seems far too capable to portray a Depression-era dame, while he doesn’t have enough capability to carry a romance on his tanned shoulders.

The notable exception is Christoph Waltz, offering the same sly bravado that he personified as Col. Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. He is the real “star performer,” with added room to strut his stuff considering that the film’s version of August was blended with another character from the novel.

Under the firm grip of director Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend), Water for Elephants has the look, the feel and the elaborate production values needed to embellish a magical three-ring circus. But with an impotent romantic chemistry between the two leads, the show lags. And not even an elephant roaring and standing on its hind legs can save it.