Water For Elephants (2011) ****

So the question is, does Robert Pattinson have the talent to breathe life into a well-written script and character?

And the answer is, definitely yes!

Pattinson may finally be able to erase the RPattz side of his persona, or at least keep it at bay, with Water For Elephants. He plays Jacob, a hardworking son of loving Polish immigrants who is about to graduate from veterinary college in 1931. Deciding to abandon those plans when his parents are suddenly killed, he hops a train which just happens to house the Benzini Brothers Circus. Jacob very nearly gets thrown off the train but for the ministrations of kindly carnival worker Camel (Jim Norton), and is soon put to work putting up tents, keeping out nonpaying customers, and (of course) shoveling shite.  August  (Christoph Waltz), Benzini's charismatic owner and ringmaster, finds out about Jacob's training, he is immediately promoted to circus vet. His first patient? Ailing trick horse Silver Star, ridden by the lovely and talented Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), who just happens to be August's wife.

Water For Elephants is exactly the type of movie for which the long-unused term "sweeping melodrama" was invented. Based on Sara Gruen's acclaimed novel and boasting a script by 90s mainstay Richard LaGranevese (Bridges of Madison County, The Mirror Has Two Faces), it also features superb unhurried direction from Vienna-born Francis Lawrence. And the combined efforts of cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and Jack Fisk capture the circus milieu perfectly, almost inviting the audience to run away and join.

As to the performances, Pattinson, although still very much a brooding presence at times, has moments where he is able to loosen up and open up, this being a romance and all. He is helped immeasurably by the presence of Witherspoon, a costar he can finally play off of. Waltz continues to display the simmering charisma-to-mania slow burn that we first witnessed in Inglorious Basterds . The romantic elements are refreshingly old fashioned, unfolding at a pace respectful of the Depression-era time period, also allowing us to understand the bright spot that the circus was in people's lives at that time.

Step right up, and enjoy!

MTMG