Water for Elephants stars, Reese Witherspoon as Marlena Rosenbluth , the star attraction at the Circus and wife of the owner / ringmaster ; Robert Pattinson as Jacob Jankowski , the lonely poor orphan boy , intelligent and bright , wandering the open road of America ; Christoph Waltz as August Rosenbluth , as the Ringmaster ; but the star and hero of the film is "Tai" as "Rosie, the elephant" who saves the circus .
Set in the Great American Depression of the 1930s , where no one has any money , and worse than that , any booze . Prohibition just stinks , good hard working circus performers need a bit of the good stuff to carry them thru the day .
The story line is a little thin , but takes a long time getting to the end . The acting is good , and the period of the 1930s comes across well , but the hard sell is the chemistry between these people . The hubsand and wife seem to be in a loveless marriage , and in the end the film seems like a loveless movie .
But what is love ?
This is Francis Lawrence third time in the director's chair the first and second being Constantine (2005) with Keanu Reeves , and I Am Legend (2007) with Wil Smith · Water for Elephants (2011) also has the star power of Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson .
The question now is does Robert Pattinson have the box office draws of the Twilight Movies , or is it the popularity of the Twilight books ?
Coming back to Francis Lawrence , he has wandered away from a strong action based / special effects in his first two films , to a more character driven films in the story of the People of the Benzini Brother's Travelling Circus .
As many of my friends pointed out in the end , the real stars of the film were the animals , cause that is all they talked about , imagine you have a circus movie , without animals . It just does not work . Everyone you could tell wanted more animals , and more story to the animals . You wanted to know more about the horses , the lions , the dogs , the monkey and of course the ELEPHANT .
By the way all you PETA members , out there walk with your box of tissues , this one is a real tear jerker for you PETA guys and gals .
The movie is nice swing away from the Romantic-Comedy , but hardly fits the mold of a Love Story .
Watch for the old time New York Scenes , with the Empire State building and the Brooklyn Bridge in the background .
Also there is not stinger , after the movie , but if you do stay through the credits , you will notice the cast credits are done in the old time layouts :
"Marlena Rosenbluth..................................................................................Reese Witherspoon"
The list of Stuntmen goes on and on and on , but the stunts are so intergrated into the movie you do not see them , in train jumping and the stampede scenes .
The movie is a classic piece of movie making , and could be used to teach film students "HOW TO MAKE A FILM" , yet the story and the acting does not appeal to the mass audience . I am worried if it should make back it's $40 million budget .
