Water For Elephants

Director: Francis Lawrence
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz
DVD release: 12 October 2011
Rated: M

The circus is back in town, and it’s been a long wait as far as the cinema is concerned - since the blockbuster circus features of the 50s in the ilk of The Greatest Show On Earth and Trapeze. Perhaps we’ll have another spate of sawdust and tinsel tales led by Water For Elephants, and a Spanish feature with a similar plot although far different treatment The Last Circus, at the Spanish Film Festival. Everyone loves a circus, here the setting for a violent love triangle in the magic and peril of the big top nearly eighty years ago.

Introduced in the present by Jacob Jankowski as an old man (Hal Holbrooke), telling his story to an understanding circus manager, in flash back we cut to the early 1930s. We learn that his parents’ death in a car accident death has robbed the young Jacob (now played by Robert Pattinson), a Cornell veterinary student, of graduating. Suddenly penniless in the Great Depression he takes to the road, ending up on the Benzini Brothers’ circus train: “Did I pick the train, or did it pick me?”

Making friends with the elderly Camel (Jim Norton) and the roustabouts, Jacob finally manages a job as circus vet after meeting the tough, flamboyant ring master and circus owner August (Christoph Waltz). Jacob becomes entranced by the circus’s star act, August’s beautiful wife Marlena (Reese Weatherspoon). One of her beloved show horses is lame, and Jacob has the problem of telling Marlena and the money-hungry August it has to be put down.

This brings Marlena and Jacob closer together, especially when August cheaply buys a recalcitrant elephant, Rosie, to revive the circus acts. Benzini Bros is having financial problems in the grim days of the Depression. August allows Jacob to train Rosie for her performance with Marlena, but as he observes the growing attachment between his wife and the circus vet, his jealousy and temper combine to cause disaster in the whole enterprise.

Director Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) has brought Sara Gruen’s book alive in all its colour and feeling for the old time circus. The beauty and nostalgic wonder of putting up the huge tent, the acts both funny and dangerous in the ring, the animals and the clowns, the circus band, it's all there in graphic detail. The wonderful elephant Rosie plays a vital part, as does the circus train.

With scriptwriter Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King), the director has given an unforgettable picture, with conviction and authenticity of circus life in those pre-war days - something in common with the unique TV series Carnivale.

The circus riot scene of surging crowds, distraught animals, and scrambling children would give any director nightmares, but Lawrence brings it off with considerable skill. Robert Pattinson (Twilight) looking more human sporting a better haircut, certainly impresses as the young hero. Likewise Reese Weatherspoon (Walk The Line) provides a marvelously regal and talented circus performer, fetching in her skimpy outfits, with a touch of the thirty's vamp.

Absolutely grabbing the screen Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) perfectly captures the haughty charisma of a ringmaster, filled with bottled anger and jealously on short fuse. A portrait of a violent, dangerous man. Veteran Hal Holbrooke (Into The Wild) enhances his sympathetic smaller part, the aged face viewed in close shots underlining his emotion. Camerawork, lighting, and set design all of a high standard. So indeed are the dangerous action stunts, from simply running along the roof of a speeding train, to the circus acts especially with the elephant, and the chaotic catastrophe which climaxes the film.

For all lovers of the big top, Water for Elephants is a romantic drama to be savoured, with an ending you’ll surely approve.

John Bale