inamaxmoore Absolutely loved it! This film takes you to a place that some of us wished we could be...at least it does for us hopeless romantics. To sum it up, Robert Pattinson, his drive & will to want to make good movies...well, let's just say, he definitely made this one! Cheers to him for being the passionate actor he is! Keep'em coming!

jb_campo Water for Elephants is the screen adaptation of the best-selling book by Sara Gruen. What a wonderful surprise of a movie.Hal Holbrook, grisly veteran actor, appears at a circus seemingly lost, looking for his son. He apparently was part of an old home group and got lost. This is a beautiful opening scene set in the rain and darkness that invokes immediate sadness for this poor old lost man. This excellent opening clears the path to a hugely emotional movie that brings out all the highs and lows of life.Jacob talks with the circus manager and you learn that when Jacob was young, he worked with the 1931 Benzini Circus. When the you circus manager learns Jacob was right there when the Benzini's collapsed, he asks Jacob to tell him about it. This storytelling mode made me think of Peter Falk's narration throughout The Princess Bride.Robert Pattinson from the Twilight series is excellent as the young Jacob. He delivers an emotional portrayal that leaves me wondering why he didn't get an Academy nomination, though he did win a Teen Choice award.Reese Witherspoon delivers a fine performance as Marlena, wife of the Circus owner August, brilliantly portrayed by Christoper Waltz. August is clearly mentally unbalanced, and prone to huge emotional outbursts that hurt people and animals.Jacob, Marlena, and August form a complex relationship that eventually leads to a violent outcome. Involved in this is also Rosey, the elephant, with Jacob as the veterinarian/trainer who must protect Rosey and Marlena.There are many beautifully choreographed scenes with close-up circus scenes, sprawling vistas of trains, and gritty reality views of what life was like living on a circus train traveling from town to town.This movie is not for the squeamish because there is a lot of violence, but only a bit of blood shown. You will experience a huge range of emotions as the Director, Francis Lawrence, does an excellent job of storytelling that keeps it easy to understand what's happening. Water for Elephants is a wonderful movie that is well worth your time. Enjoy.

Python Hyena Water for Elephants (2011): Dir: Francis Lawrence / Cast: Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz, Hal Holbrook, James Frain: The title is a reference to the calm after the storm. Taking us back to 1931 with narration by the aged hero with regards the the tragedy that unfolds. Hal Holbrook appears at the end of a circus performance. He left a home and tells of his life at the circus that brought romance, adventure and ultimately tragedy. His younger self is played by Robert Pattinson, whose parents die in a car accident while he was in college. With the bank seizing his home, he ends up aboard a train which is the circus travelling to another location. The ringmaster is a foul tempered man who abuses the animals and people alike. His wife is Marlena, the star attraction with a white horse is cut short when it suffers a bad hoof. Pattinson puts it down and nearly gets thrown from the train until the ringmaster brings in a new star attraction, an elephant. Directed by Francis Lawrence who previously made Constantine and I Am Legend. Pattinson holds strong in his willingness to protect others from the abuse of the ringmaster. Reese Witherspoon as Marlena is the star attraction whose act with a horse is replaced with Rosie the elephant. Christoph Waltz plays off the rage of the ringmaster who desires riches at any extent, but can see, as can we, Marlena's interest in Pattinson. Holbrook is the narrator who puts it in perspective. James Frain plays the elephant's caretaker, which is a step down for him in terms of career goals. Stunning production of the illusion and wonderment of the circus life. Score: 8 ½ / 10

salderney-25728 Casting choices for this film are up there with the worst of them. Main character cast for his fan-base of teenage girls and certainly not his acting ability which is cringe inducing during most scenes. Yes folks,Robert Pattinson is the offending 'actor' here playing Jacob Jankowsky, played at the start of the film by Hal Holbrook. The old Jacob who is around 95, is discovered by circus staff long after the end of the show in a parking lot having run away from his nursing home after hearing the circus was in town. On discovering the old man once worked for a historic circus, the manager asks him to tell his story, so queue the narrative and now it is 1931. Jacob is a student vet who is given the tragic news of his parents demise just 2 minutes into his final exam, a rather unbelievable point that is central to the story. Would they have been any less dead had they waited 118 more minutes later,at least letting him finish his degree?Anyway I digress. As they do not, having confirmed that his apparently well known parents were indeed his parents, dropped out of uni and discovered that his parents had financed his unfinished degree with a loan secured on all their assets thus leaving him with nothing, he decides to head for the city in search of work. He ends up jumping a train that happens to be a circus train where an alcoholic old workman with no authority at any other time in the film has the authority to stop the circus owner's evil henchman from throwing him off the moving train and later helps him get a job in the circus as it's vet. He spots the circus owner's wife Marlena, played by Reese Witherspoon who is (well meant to be) a stunningly beautiful and super talented performer, the star attraction of the entire show no less, for whom he develops an infatuation. Now I have nothing against the actress as such, however the director in casting her again got it horribly wrong again. She is far too old for the character she plays and is not especially beautiful nor a performer so she just looks plain wrong as Marlena and I see little point delaying saying that her performance is probably the worst acting from her that I have seen. Whether she was trying to match her costar I know not, but she is very wooden and completely devoid of personality; not even slightly believable. Waltz plays August, the ruthless and psychotic circus master. He seems to suit such personalities rather well and it's thanks to his performance that this film isn't a complete train- wreck. (Sorry! Couldn't resist) When Jacob discovers a horse essential to Marlena's star act has a terminal condition and shoots it, August aquires an elephant and promotes Jacob to it's keeper. Initially unaware how to control the creature, there are problems which cause drama, especially when August looses his rag and attacks the poor creature to the disgust of his wife and Jacob, in fact everybody. While mad at August, Marlena starts falling for Jacob and things develop between the two, however following the assault, Jacob discovers the elephant does in fact perform really well but takes Polish commands. Due to this, their affair goes flat for a while until August next goes evil. This occurs one night when he notices a look between J and M looks far from benign. He then comes close to possibly killing J although is prevented by one of his henchmen.The 2 then jump from the now moving train as it leaves town and flee to a hotel, where they finally sleep together. Barely finished, August's henchmen find them, grab Marlena and leave him a bloody mess. After they jumped off the train, an enraged August had his henchmen throw several workman off the moving train, killing two and engaging many more. The next show, some of the enraged folks sabotage the show causing chaos. In the resulting mayhem, August again tries killing Jacob, but Marlena stops him so instead he tries to kill her. This time he is stopped by the elephant,who also happens to kill him. J and M go off together, join a rival circus.. happily ever after.So a thoroughly believable story then, made all the more believable by 2 main characters, one by their inability to act, highlighted by their tendency for sudden cheesy grinning where their only other expression - pouting feels unsuitable to him; the other by seemingly not having her heart in it, perhaps she felt as out of place as she looked but couldn't turn down the fat pay cheque? If nothing else the film will serve as an indisputable example to others of both the result of terrible casting and how you can sadly still pull in the viewers on the strength of cast member's fan base regardless of the quality of the production. The few stars I gave were purely for the performance of the elephant and some of the other veterans involved and not at all the leading pair or director.