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Groovy Mule -> Old fashioned and trite (10/5/2011 1:50:20 PM)
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I think 3 stars is about right for this, if not a little generous.
In a summer blockbuster season in which there are superheroes, 3D and cowboys fighting aliens, Water for Elephants (dreadful title) feels particularly old fashioned and almost takes pride in this. The filmmakers clearly believe that this is a sweeping romantic epic, aiming for The English Patient crossed with The Greatest Show on Earth but the reality is that this film never comes close to either one of those Oscar winners.
I wasn't aware of the source novel prior to the film's release and I understand it is quite the bestseller but I can't help but feel that it is the source and its adaptation by Richard LaGravenense (one of Hollywood's prime schmaltz shovellers) which are fundamental to why the film fails to deliver. Devices used to bring the audience into the story are clunky and old hat. How many TV movies of the week rely on the old man (Hal Holbrook) telling a stranger about how they ended up where they are before dissolving into a sepia-toned flashback which becomes the film's narrative? This device coupled with dialogue which is so clichéd that you can finish the actors' sentences for them means that you can't help but fell you've seen it all before but done better.
There is little to challenge or threaten the sensibilities of the audience in this film. It is the very epitome of a 12A certificate to the extent that you have to assume that the editors had the 12A certificate checklist to guide them through the process. There are lots of shots of misty eyed Robert Pattinson, looking off into the middle distance, one scene of him in a vest and chaste references to sex with cut-aways from any nudity together with a restrained approach to violence. It's as if everyone is holding back and that follows through to the actors. Both Witherspoon and Pattinson are competent as the leads but there is very little chemistry between the two and the plot contrivences used to bring them together feel forced. It is also hard to believe either character would really have been left with no option but to join the circus. As the circus owner and ring master, Christoph Waltz gives a pastiche of his Hans Landa performance of snake-like charm and menace but one could be forgiven for thinking that he has stepped out of a different film. Despite that, of all of the performances his is the most satisfying.
If you have pre-teen girls in your family, a trip to see Water for Elephants will tick a lot of boxes - performing animals, non-threatening boys in a vest, (some) romance and a female lead who wears pretty outfits and works in a circus. For everyone else, there is likely to be little to sustain your interest beyond working out where the animals are real and where they are CGI and waiting for Christoph Waltz to return. There were certainly a number of grumbles as I left the cinema. This is chick-lit in film form - undemanding, escapist and unthreatening.
5/10
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