WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
3 out of 5 stars

didn’t have high expectations for this one, but i ended up liking it because the story really appealed to me. it’s the classic story of how boy meets girl, but there’s also an amazing elephant named rosie in the mix. it wasn’t bad...for a robert pattinson movie. :P

so, robert pattinson plays a vet student named jacob jankowski, who was in the middle of taking his cornell veterinarian science final, when he is informed that his parents died in a car accident. he’s devestated by their deaths, but even more so to the fact that he’s going to have to drop out of school to pay for his father’s debts and the mortgage on his home. he decides to run away/flee his hometown (i guess there is where the term “run away and join the circus” comes into play), when he literally crosses paths with a circus train. the train is filled with animals, stagehands, performers, etc., and jacob decides to work for the benzini bros. circus trope. it’s a lot of hard/gross work at first...cleaning up animal feces, feeding the lions, setting up the big top, etc. then, one day, he watches marlena (reese witherspoon) with her horse act, and immediately falls in love with her. he also learns that marlena is married to the cruel and asshole ringmaster named august (christoph waltz- that man is diabolically awesome), and decides to tread lightly since august is...well, PSYCHO. throwing off men in the middle of the night because you can’t pay their wages is a clear indication that this man is NOT sane. (gotta love the great depression...) after marlena’s star horse is put down, august decides to elevate her act with an elephant, and august promotes jacob to bull man. (trainer to elephant rosie)

the real star of this movie is rosie the elephant because the acting here just skates by. robert pattinson to me has always been a bore, and reese witherspoon annoys me. (she’s even more annoying in this one b/c of that marilyn monroe-like hair) christoph waltz is always fab esp. in villainous roles like this, but the rest of the movie just hums along. the story, itself, i thought was creative and very nicholas sparks? (i.e. the notebook) so, as a girl, of course, i loved that about this movie! very bittersweet and melancholic, and this is one that nostalgic ppl would love. ;)