Review of Water for Elephants (2011) by Joy W — 06 Jan 2012
This period piece drama completely exceeded my expectations. I mean, I heard it was good, but I had no idea that it would be that good. The world of it is defined really well. Circus life is a world within itself, full of rules, traditions, and even a vocabulary that we don't understand.
This movie does a good job of making that world understandable enough so that we get what's going on, but not so much that it drags down the movie. Robert Pattinson is great as Jacob. It is so refreshing to see him outside of the Twilight series, because he actually does better work in other movies.
As for Reese Witherspoon, in my opinion, this is her best work since Walk the Line. Loved her performance. Christoph Waltz is just way too good at playing the bad guy. And this is his most evil performance yet.
He abuses his employees, his wife, and his animals. And at times it's uncomfortable to watch, but that makes the performance all the more compelling, because he somehow manages to garner some sympathy from the audience.
How? I have no idea. Lastly, and I'm going to try really hard to not make this a spoiler, but it was refreshing to see this romance/drama have an ending that I didn't expect. So, overall, this one is definitely worth a watch.
This review of Water for Elephants (2011) was written by Joy W on 06 Jan 2012.
Water for Elephants has generally received positive reviews.
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