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Water for Elephants

JWF: …is an Up 'N Comer.; Join date : 2010-03-02
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Post n°1

Water for Elephants

by JWF Fri Apr 22, 2011 5:52 pm

Taken from one of the most acclaimed novels during the past 10 years. Staring an Oscar winning actress and actor, plus one of today's teen idol heartthrobs. Add the backdrop of a love triangle melodrama, the great depression of 1931, and the always popular circus genre. With these ingredients how can any director and script-writer miss with a winning formula. Read on!

Jacob (Robert Pattinson) a veterinarian drop out from College (Cornell) due to the sudden death of his parents. With no future (remember it's the depression), penniless, and distressed, he heads out of town (Ithaca)by way of the nearest train. It just happens the train is run by the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.

It's actually a run-down second-rate struggling circus, under the fierce and inhumane arm of it's owner and ringmaster August (Christoph Waltz). Jacobs initial job is shoveling manure in the menagerie. Eventually he is taken on as the circus veterinarian. August insist Jacob tends to Marlena's (Reese Witherspoon) prize white horses (she's the equestrian rider), including an ailing horse, which Jacob feels should be euthanzied.

Oh, Marlena also happens to also be married to August. August has ways of controlling cost and those looking too long at his wife. Among his means is tossing employees who he can't pay or need off the train (while its moving). In between a romantic move on Marlena.... Jacobs new job is training the next circus star Rosie the elephant, who just happens to have trouble following anyone's common. Of course, Jacob can speak Polish. Will the struggling circus be saved? Will Marlena survive August? Will Jacob find true love?

The film is told during a 70 year span, with the older Jacob (Hal Holbrook) appearing at the start and conclusion.

Bottom Line: I can live with a patchwork script (I read the novel), but the acting is another matter. IMO---there is absolutely no chemistry or spark between Witherspoon and Pattinson. She is miscast and he just can't act. He's dismally untalented. Mr. Pattinson is my early choice for the Razzie Award.

C-
Jack

Supernova

Supernova: The Book Chamber; Join date : 2010-06-22
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Post n°2

Re: Water for Elephants

by Supernova Fri Apr 22, 2011 6:14 pm

Love stories do very little for me, especially sorts like this. I have absolutely no plan to see it, or to read the book for that matter, in the first place.

Shale

Shale: ...is a Chamber Royal.; Join date : 2010-09-27
Location : Miami Beach
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Post n°3

Re: Water for Elephants

by Shale Fri Apr 22, 2011 11:09 pm

Water for Elephants
Movie Blurb by Shale
April 22, 2011

After getting back into town at about midnight after two days on the bus I had a little sleep, caught up on things to do and decided to take in a movie. Opening this week was a drama that I had seen the trailers and had heard about from my sister. She reads and enjoyed the titular novel by Sara Gruen.

I don't read and didn't read the novel. In a way I think I am ahead because I saw the movie as the only source of a compelling and often tense story. Strangely, I thot this a very good movie as did 93% of audiences on Rottentomatoes but just over half the aggregate reviewers liked it. (I suspect they read the book and compared apples and oranges).

The tension is set, as seen in the trailers when an old man shows up at a modern circus and it is revealed that he was aware of the Benzini Brothers circus and its tragic ending.

The old man is Jacob Jankowski (Hal Holbrook) who is invited to talk about it with the young circus manager. In flashback the movie opens on a young Jacob (Robert Pattinson) in 1931 as he is finishing veterinarian school at Cornell. That is not to be as he loses his parents and in the depression, everything else. He leaves town and hops a freight train, which happens to be the Benzini Circus.

Jacob Searching for a New Life
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These are really desperate times, when hungry men did anything for work and life apparently was cheap along the road. Jacob is about to be thrown from the train before it is revealed to owner and Ringmaster August Rosenbluth (Christoph Waltz) that he is a veterinarian and could be of service to the circus.

August is married to Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) the star act with trained horses.

August & Marlena
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We soon learn that August has anger issues, is a sadist who enjoys inflicting pain on others, whether animal or human. His wife is devoted to him, sort of co-dependent. Also, as all businesses in the depression, this one is a step ahead of folding at any time and people seem to disappear when the payroll can't be met.

Jacob crosses August on a matter of conscience and is nearly killed for it but in a mood swing is spared. He stays and when August buys an elephant, Jacob is to be it's trainer and work with Marlena who will perform with the beast.

Jacob, Marlena & Rosie
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August the control freak mishandles Rosie the elephant by beating her and Rosie reacts. Jacob tries to intervene as much as he can without being mishandled himself and Marlena admires Jacob's kindness and starts to resent her husband's brutality more.

Well, you can see this coming - Jacob and Marlena start liking each other - a lot.

Dangerous Infatuation
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And, you can see where it's going. As I said, not having read the book and not knowing how this story plays out there are tense moments thru-out this movie waiting for some clash in the triangle, August-Jacob -Marlena. Plus, there's that mention of the tragedy in the beginning of the story.

I enjoyed the movie and I think Pattinson held his own with the other actors. This is the second serious drama I've seen him in (Remember Me - where his clash with Pierce Brosnan was very convincing) and I think he is breaking away from Edward Cullen (who can't pass for 17 any more).