“Water For Elephants” starts off with Jacob Jankowski (Hal Holbrook) in the present day, this old man just missed the last showing of the circus. He starts talking to one of the employees of the circus about how he was in the most spectacular show on Earth back in the 1930’s with the Benzini Bros circus. And here is where the story begins.
We go back in time to the Depression era and see young Jacob Jankowski (Robert Pattinson) moments away before taking his final exam in order to get his degree in veterinary sciences from Cornell University, and then the unexpected happens: both of Jacob’s parents die, and with their death he finds out that his parents were in debt with the bank just to pay his tuition. Without anything left, Jacob leaves his house and decides to go walking to Albany, NY to find a job. On his walk there he decides to jump on a train, little did he know this train will change his life, in the words of old Jacob Jankowski “I didn’t know if I picked that train or if that train picked me“. We enter the marvelous world of the Benzini Brothers circus, everything under the rule of August (Christoph Waltz) who is a cold hearted boss who would rather throw off men from a moving train than to pay them. As Jacob starts to work with the Benzini Bros as their veterinarian, he notices the beautiful Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) being part of the star act with the horses, and yes, it was love at first sight for him. The story revolves in the love triangle, how Marlena can’t leave August because he offers her a sense of conformity in the midst of the Depression, how Jacob and Marlena need to keep what they have secret in fear of August’s dangerous self. Everything changes when a new addition to the star attraction of the circus is included, here is our elephant Rosie (Tai) who steals the show as well as the audiences hearts.
I LOVED this movie. Months before, I had the opportunity to read the script and I knew right then that this movie was not going to dissapoint fans of Sara Gruen’s amazing book. The cinematography was EXCELLENT, and they depicted the 1930’s perfectly, as well as the score was really good. The performances were great, I was just happy to see Pattinson do something else besides the Twilight movies, because this guy CAN act and carry a movie, I just think that some critics out there don’t want to give him a chance and just stigmatize him as “the Twilight kid”. I have to admit that from the cast the best performance was definitely Christoph Waltz, I am SO glad he got the part because he was perfect for it, he kept the audience wondering what was going to be his next move. Reese did a good job as Marlena, but my favorite female performance goes out to the elephant, Rosie (Tai), who owns the audience and her relationship with Jacob is beyond cute.
If you haven’t already, go see Water For Elephants. Bring kleenex with you because you will cry eventually.
Water For Elephants is in theaters now.
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