This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The circus can be fun and exotic or cruel and horrific — so how director Francis Lawrence ("I Am Legend") settled on dull and sappy is a puzzle.
Lawrence and writer Richard LaGravanese ("The Horse Whisperer") adapt Sara Gruen's novel, which follows Jacob (Robert Pattinson), a college kid left on his own during the Depression as he enters the world of the Benzini Bros. Circus.
With his veterinary skills, Jacob impresses the authoritarian owner/ringmaster August (Christoph Waltz) and appeals to Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), the circus' star attraction and August's wife.
The story heads toward romantic tension when August assigns Jacob to train a newly acquired elephant for Marlena's new act, but Lawrence bathes the melodrama in so many layers of nostalgia (including a framing story that casts Hal Holbrook as the centenarian Jacob, as the character finally learns facial expressions after 80 years) that the movie lumbers like, well, an elephant. HH
Water for Elephants
Opens Friday, April 22, at theaters everywhere; rated PG-13 for moments of intense violence and sexual content; 120 minutes.