Review

Review Date: 24-April-11
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Water for Elephants (2011)

After playing the doomed Cedric Diggory of Harry Potter films and the undead dreamboat of the Twilight saga, Robert Pattinson has become the pop culture ideal of soulful. His eyes, long-lashed and far apart, are instruments of agonized decency. In Water for Elephants he plays another soulful hero, a would-be veterinarian who runs away from catastrophe and joins the circus during the Great Depression. He's polite, he loves animals, and he appreciates the circus for its beauty rather than as a business enterprise. He is, in short, the exact opposite of the circus' owner (Christoph Waltz), who is a few tent poles short of stability and handles stress by physically assaulting creatures at his mercy. One such creature is his wife and star performer (Reese Witherspoon), so naturally Pattinson falls for her out of admiration, pity, and a conjoining of souls.

Acknowledging the eye of the beholder and all that, I must state that Pattinson's charms are too subtle for the big screen. Throughout Water for Elephants I believed that he was a kind, well brought-up young man eager to help the show's new elephant (a real charmer) and the human object of his affection, but he didn't draw me into the character's emotions. (The story is told as a reminiscence of the hero when he's very old, and with just a few minutes Hal Holbrook makes him loads more interesting than his younger counterpart does.) The best scenes are not those in which Pattinson and Witherspoon slide into dangerous romance, since there's very little heat between them, but when Pattinson sets soulful aside and becomes the good-natured butt of carny humor. If he wants a lasting career perhaps he should branch out and try action comedy, his millions of teen fans be damned. Waltz would also do well to break out of his rut and find a part that doesn't involve sadism or violence — even though this movie shows how he excels in such roles.

Despite the leading man's wanness and the tepid chemistry between the lovers, the movie exudes a bit of romance with its physical and temporal setting. Circuses possess a special allure when used outright and not as symbols or metaphors, and the 1930s offer tantalizing opportunities for decor and costume. (Witherspoon's various earrings are a highlight, and Pattinson wears one of the coolest shirts ever.) But atmosphere is not enough. Rather like Pattinson's persona, Water for Elephants is dreamy and well-meaning without having the potency to move this viewer's soul.

Copyright © 2011 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.