Water for Elephants

Movie: Water for Elephants

Genre: drama

Synopsis: Jacob (Robert Pattinson) is a test away from getting his veterinary degree from Cornell in the middle of the Great Depression.  Then tragedy hits and he flees school and joins a circus – the Benzini Brothers.  He gets a job with them taking care of the animals.  The circus is run by the charismatic and sadistic August (Christopher Waltz).  August’s wife, Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) is the star attraction of the circus.  When Jacob falls in love with Marlena, August quickly becomes suspicious.  Jacob must walk a fine line between caring for the animals, placating August and not revealing his love of Marlena.  When August buys an elephant (Rosie) for the circus, Jacob is the key to training the elephant for her a act.

My two cents:  I might have liked the movie a lot more had I not read the book.  I was appalled and disappointed at how much was left out of the movie.  It was interesting to see how a circus was run in the 30’s.  Christopher Waltz was great as August.  Robert Pattinson actually managed to make me forget the annoying Edward Cullen for a while.  They followed the book enough to make it a good  movie,  but left out too much for it to be great.

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