The girl next door and the vampire next door — it’s an odd pairing. And a testament to the talents of these two actors that it actually works. Who would have thought that Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson would have believable chemistry on screen together? In a cut scene from “Vanity Fair,” after all, she played his mother. “Water for Elephants,” a slightly earnest ode to freedom for both animals and the humans who care for them, manages to perform this sleight of hand, much like the circus workers manage to shepherd the “rubes” into the big tent to part from their money. Jacob (Pattinson) is one of those workers, an unlikely job for a Cornell veterinary student. But when his parents die and leave him nothing but debt during the Depression, he doesn’t have much of a choice. The circus’ owner August (Christoph Waltz) soon sees he has a talented young man on his hands who can do more than shovel manure. He appoints him trainer of his newest star attraction, an old elephant named Rosie who seems unwilling to perform. Jacob soon falls in love with the beast — and with August’s other star attraction, his beautiful performing wife, Marlena (Witherspoon).
We know August is a bad man, because he mistreats his animals. This is a circus, not a nature preserve, and August has a huge crew to support at a time when jobs are scarce. The film is at least nuanced enough to make us understand this, though August is otherwise a bit of a caricature. Played by Waltz, though, the Austrian actor who was so memorable in “Inglourious Basterds,” he’s a flesh-and-blood man who even (albeit rarely) commands our sympathy. He offers Jacob a new home, one filled with beauty and magic that the average person might only get to see once a year. “You must learn, dear boy, that the rules of these United States of Suckers do not apply to us,” August tells Jacob as he charms him into the circus family.
| On screen |
| ‘Water for Elephants’ |
| 3 out of 5 stars |
| Stars: Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz |
| Director: Francis Lawrence |
| Rated: PG-13 for moments of intense violence and sexual content |
| Running time: 122 minutes |
But Jacob can’t feel comfortable there while he watches the stunning Marlena throw away her youth and beauty on a man who sees her much like that performing elephant. It’s easy to see why Jacob falls in love with her almost at first sight. It takes her longer — but it’s inevitable once she realizes that Jacob wants only her happiness, whether or not it includes him.
“The Benzini Brothers outdid God himself. They created heaven in one day,” the older Jacob (Hal Holbrook) says of the circus troupe that took him in. One gets the sense, watching this predictable but dazzling film, that we all lost something when the circus became safer, but less thrilling.
