Water for Elephants ( 2011 )

Water for Elephants ( 2011 )

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 .

Black Swan ( 2011 )

Black Swan is a psycho sexual thriller starring Natalie Portman as Nina a dancer in the New York Ballet Company.

The company is preparing for a production of Swan Lake and the Director needs a new Principal dancer as the star Beth is retiring. The lead must be able to portray both the innocent white swan and the evil black swan. Nina is selected to compete for the part along with newcomer in the ballet company Lily. Nina goes to see the director to ask him for the role but he tells he although she will make an excellent white swan her lack of passion will not make her suitable for the black swan role. He forces a kiss on her and she bites him which makes him see some potential for being dark so he gives her the role. Lily is cast as her understudy.

During rehearsals Nina is excellent as the white swan but a poor black swan the director tell her she has to stop being so rigid and lose herself in the black swan role.

Nina becomes paranoid that Lily wants to take the lead role from her and starts to hallucinate and become delusional.
One night Lily shows up by Nina’s door and invites her to go out for drinks. At first Nina refuses but after a fight with her controlling mother she goes out with Lily. Lily offers Nina drugs which lower her inhibitions and she becomes sexually aroused. When they return to the apartment they lock themselves in Nina’s room and have passionate sex.

Nina wakes up late for her rehearsal and when she arrives she sees Lily playing the Swan Queen. She confronts Lily and asked why she didn’t wake her up. Lily says she spent the night with a guy and not at Nina’s, it is revealed that Nina was hallucinating.

The night before the opening night Nina rehearses late and continues to hallucinate, at home she imagines the paintings on the wall mocking her and she sees little black growths on her back, when she pulls them out it appears to be feathers. Her eyes turn blood red and her legs contort like those of a swan, she falls and knocks herself out on her bedpost.

She awakes the night of her performance locked in her bedroom by her mother who said she called the dance company and told them she is unwell and will not be able to perform. She physically fights with her mother and heads to the show where the Director has asked Lily to take over the role; Nina disregards this and tells Thomas she is able to perform.

During the first act Nina is distracted and the Prince drops her, she returns to the dressing room and finds Lily dressed in the Black Swan costume. A fight ensues where Lily changes form from herself to Nina, Nina and her double battle where Nina pushes her against a mirror which shatters, she then takes up a piece of glass and stabs her, the body then changes back to Lily and Nina hides the body.

She dances the black swan passionately imagining black feathers growing all over her body and her arms becoming wings. She receives a standing ovation from the audience.

Back in her dressing room she is preparing for the final act when someone knocks on the door, it is Lily who comes to congratulate her on her performance. She realizes the fight was another hallucination and sees a wound on her body and realized that she stabbed herself. She stills performs the final act where she dances passionately as the dying white swan. In the last scene when she throws herself of a cliff the theatre erupts in applause and the cast comes to congratulate her on her performance. Lily sees Nina wound, Nina lies wounded saying “I was perfect”.

This was one of the most overhyped movies; I think the billing was wrong- a Psycho Sexual thriller, there was nothing either thrilling or sexual about the film except for the imagined lesbian scene.

Although Natalie Portman looked the part of a Ballerina maybe through a strict diet the story line did not call for her to do much as an actress. She just had to play a sad girl with a controlling mother and look fearful. Even her innocence and naiveté was annoying -you can’t be that perfect.

I won’t recommend paying the money to see but if you are the artsy type and wish to see a Ballet it’s probably worth a look just don’t expect much.