Water for Elephants

A bit of advice if you're going to see a movie starring Rob Pattinson on opening night- the later the showtime, the better. I almost went to a 6:30 showing, but decided to go later to avoid as many loud, annoying 12 year old girls as possible. Definitaly made the right decesion. There were a few people that pissed me off (including a group of women squeeling before the movie started. Funny part is they looked old enough to be Rob's mother.) but overall it wasn't too bad.

Moving on to the review. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible.

Water for Elephants is based on a book that came out I beleive in 2004 or sometime around then. I skimmed through the book maybe a week or two ago and from what I can tell, the movie stayed fairly close. There were several changes of course, but I thought those changes worked for the most part.

I really enjoyed this movie. It takes place mostly in 1931 at a third rate circus and I thought they did a great job getting the look of the time period right. The music was beautiful.

As far as the acting goes, I think people are going to be really surprised at Rob's performance. He did a great job. You really felt for his character. As much as I love the Twilight movies, it was nice to see him play something other than a vampire. Reese Witherspoon, even though her character Marlena annoyed me a bit at times, was good as well. Been a fan of hers for years. The scene stealer in this movie has to be Christoph Waltz, who plays the circus owner/Marlena's husband August. If you haven't seen his performance in Inglorious Basterds, I highly reccomend it. Even though you really hate his character, Christoph plays him brilliantly. Interesting fact: the role was originally suppose to be played by Sean Penn, who had to back out at the last minute.

The chemistry between Rob & Reese was.... okay. I mean, it wasn't horrible or anything it was just a little weird at times. I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm so use to seeing him with Kristen Stewart. Or because several years ago Reese played Rob's mother in another movie (can't think of the title at the moment), though the scene was cut out.

A warning to all my fellow animal lovers out there: there are a couple of scenes of animal cruelty. They were so hard to watch I had to turn my head away from the screen.

But overall I would reccomend this movie.

My rating: 8/10