Water For Elephants (15.)
Directed by Francis Lawrence.
Starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz, Jim Norton, Paul Schneider, Hal Holbrook. 116 mins
Robert Pattinson smiles. In fact he smiles and laughs a lot. In this occasionally rather dark period piece romantic drama set during the Great Depression he plays a vet who runs away to join the circus and he can’t seem to stop chuckling. It’s as if he can’t contain his joy at having slipped away, if only temporarily, from the shackles of playing Edward Cullenhands in Twilight.
Watching him here you think that there may actually be some future for him beyond the talcum powder complexion and the quiff. He always come across as something of a plank in those films, little more than a supporting structure for the hairdo, but he makes a rather respectable human being in this.
Taken from a best seller by Sara Gruen’s novel, the basics of the tale is another love triangle. After a tragedy leaves him penniless Jacob jumps on a train and into a career as the vet and elephant handler for The Benzini Bros circus. He also finds himself coming between the star performer Marlene (Witherspoon) and her husband the circus’s tyrannical owner August (Waltz.)
I imagine most reviewers will be Team August because just as he was in Inglorious Bastards, Waltz is great to watch here. He seems to resemble a compendium of every Rob Brydon impression during The Trip. He’s taken little bits of all the classic Hollywood crazies but although he is basically giving you used moves, he still seems like a fresh act.
Stuck between them is Witherspoon who never really convinces as the glamorous queen of a circus.
You’d need a visionary director to do justice to the slightly surreal nature of life aboard the circus train, where surplus staff are redlighted (thrown off the train) during overnight journeys. I couldn’t help thinking about what Malick might have made of this. The plot is like Big Top Days of Heaven while the lead character, Robert Pattinson’s Jacob, is a very Malick-like creation being a Depression era wanderer who remains immaculately groomed despite all his privations. Lawrence isn’t a visionary, but like with I Am Legend he seems to be developing the happy knack of making films that are just a little bit better than you expect them to be.
Water For Elephants (15.)
Directed by Francis Lawrence.
Starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz, Jim Norton, Paul Schneider, Hal Holbrook. 116 mins
Robert Pattinson smiles. In fact he smiles and laughs a lot. In this occasionally rather dark period piece romantic drama set during the Great Depression he plays a vet who runs away to join the circus and he can’t seem to stop chuckling. It’s as if he can’t contain his joy at having slipped away, if only temporarily, from the shackles of playing Edward Cullenhands in Twilight.
Watching him here you think that there may actually be some future for him beyond the talcum powder complexion and the quiff. He always come across as something of a plank in those films, little more than a supporting structure for the hairdo, but he makes a rather respectable human being in this.
Taken from a best seller by Sara Gruen’s novel, the basics of the tale is another love triangle. After a tragedy leaves him penniless Jacob jumps on a train and into a career as the vet and elephant handler for The Benzini Bros circus. He also finds himself coming between the star performer Marlene (Witherspoon) and her husband the circus’s tyrannical owner August (Waltz.)
I imagine most reviewers will be Team August because just as he was in Inglorious Bastards, Waltz is great to watch here. He seems to resemble a compendium of every Rob Brydon impression during The Trip. He’s taken little bits of all the classic Hollywood crazies but although he is basically giving you used moves, he still seems like a fresh act.
Stuck between them is Witherspoon who never really convinces as the glamorous queen of a circus.
You’d need a visionary director to do justice to the slightly surreal nature of life aboard the circus train, where surplus staff are redlighted (thrown off the train) during overnight journeys. I couldn’t help thinking about what Malick might have made of this. The plot is like Big Top Days of Heaven while the lead character, Robert Pattinson’s Jacob, is a very Malick-like creation being a Depression era wanderer who remains immaculately groomed despite all his privations. Lawrence isn’t a visionary, but like with I Am Legend he seems to be developing the happy knack of making films that are just a little bit better than you expect them to be.
