‘Water for Elephants,” Francis Lawrence’s pleasing, if at times tepid film adaptation of the best-selling 2006 novel by Sara Gruen, is a return to the sort of showman-style, romantic epic of Hollywood’s golden past.
“Twilight” heartthrob Robert Pattinson, America’s darling Reese Witherspoon and Austrian-born, recent Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz (“Inglourious Basterds”) are three sides of a circus-set, Depression-era love triangle.
Pattinson, whose character first appears in present time as an old man played beautifully by Hal Holbrook, is Jacob Jankowski. American son of Polish immigrants, Jacob is about to graduate from Cornell University in veterinary science when the story begins in flashback in 1931.
Witherspoon, aptly made-up to resemble 1930s bombshell Jean Harlow, is Marlena, an orphan who married a circus owner and became his “star attraction” with a trained horse act.
Waltz is August, owner of Benzini Circus and Pygmalion to Marlena’s Galatea. He is also ringmaster and hot-tempered, fiercely jealous husband of Marlena and hater of things Ringling Bros.-related.
The film is steeped in exotic and in some cases profane circus legend, lore and slang. We learn about “redlining” (throwing workers off a moving train), the “rubes” and the tricks used to gull them. We see the big top going up and the side tent where the coochie girls ply their trade. This is a magical world full of clowns, trained lions, acrobats, trapeze artists and an elephant named Rosie.
If Pattinson still indulges his smile reflex a little too liberally, he has also grown as an actor since the first “Twilight” movie and makes a credible romantic lead falling helplessly in love with the boss’ wife. Waltz is terrific as the sadistic August, and I could swear he was channeling a bit of German actor Anton Diffring from “Circus of Horrors” (1960) in his borderline, over-the-(big)-top performance.
Witherspoon looks lovely in her circus costumes and is utterly convincing as the object of desire. The Oscar winner also performed many of her own stunts, many atop the elephant.
Director Lawrence (“I Am Legend,” “Constantine”) and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (“Biutiful”) create magically evocative images of circus life and especially of the circus train making its way across an almost fairy-like landscape to the next stop. Like the circus itself, “Water for Elephants” combines brutality and elements of the fairy tale, although it is held back by its PG-13 rating.
The supporting cast is notably fine, including veteran Holbrook, Mark Povinelli as Kinko the dwarf, Ken Foree as one of August’s enforcers and Dublin-born Jim Norton (“The Eclipse”) as Jacob’s sodden mentor. Run away to this circus.
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