Movie Review: Water for Elephants
Sure, there are plenty of golden-hued stories set during the American Depression of the 1930s which merely glance at the legendary hardships of the time but mostly linger on the crisp fashions and hot jazz of a romanticized era. Water for Elephants, based on Sara Gruen’s bestseller, is another glossy Depression-era tale of a clean-cut young man who runs away with the circus and falls into romantic intrigue with the wife of a sinister ringmaster. I was worried that the film would sidestep the unpleasant elements of the book (especially some harrowing instances of animal cruelty) and pander to date night crowds with the low-wattage choices of screenwriter Richard LaGravenese (Freedom Writers, P.S. I Love You…ugh) and a director responsible for a smattering of pop music videos and the lackluster I Am Legend. So, color me surprised that the result is far less cloying than expected and leaves enough of the raw material intact to fashion a convincing and engaging historical spectacle.
Robert Pattison stretches out and away from his smoldering Twilight persona as Jacob Jankowski, Ivy League-educated in veterinary sciences and son to proud Polish immigrants. Distraught by his parents sudden deaths and learning that they have left him destitute, Jacob wanders away from home and stows away on a train which turns out to be full of circus folk – the roustabouts and “kinkers” of the almost-famous “Benzini Brothers” travelling show. It doesn’t take long before he rises in the ranks by pinpointing the ailments of a doomed show-horse to the company’s sinister ringleader August (a potential caricature given depth by Christoph Waltz’s slithery mood shifts). August’s wife Marlena (doe-eyed Reese Witherspoon) is his star attraction, thrust into both the spotlight and a dependent marriage with a jealous man. Jacob, of course, draws Marlena’s eye and August’s ire with his boyish sensitivity and good breeding.
Just as he was in his Oscar-winning Inglourious Basterds turn, Waltz is the wild card keeping the movie on its toes; a source of dark comedy and combustible violence from moment to moment. Throwing men off of a moving train to cut back on spending is second nature to him, but even worse is his frustrated viciousness with the animal attractions, exhibiting special cruelty to the other main character: Rosie the elephant. Rosie gives the most emotionally resonant performance in the movie. I would go as far as to say she is given the same saintly attributes as the tragic donkey in Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar (1966) – a lumbering, heartbreaking creature who stoically endures human aggression, but this time armed with a few tricks up her trunk.
The main dramatic elements, if a bit too familiar, fit nicely into place even if the circus setting (a bounty of dramatic potential only ever truly explored by Tod Browning and the HBO series Carnivale) is under-utilized in favor of the done-to-death love triangle and an unnecessary trip to a Chicago speakeasy (as if all of the most familiar symbols of the era needed to be shoehorned in).
This wisest diversion from the original novel is in tightening up the burdensome framing device which finds a 93-year-old Jacob recounting his days of adventure while dealing with the indignities of a nursing home (done with ironic vigor in Little Big Man but more often schmaltzy like the bookends of Saving Private Ryan). The old man (Hal Holbrook) is still the primary narrator, but once the movie is underway it does not keep breaking the momentum by repeatedly returning to the present.
Since I’m obviously no admirer of the writer (Richard LaGravenese) and director (Francis Lawrence), special distinction must go to production designer Jack Fisk, one of the great unsung cinema artists due to his unparalleled work with David Lynch (Mulholland Dr.), Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven), and Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood). His talent for evoking the sensory qualities of exotic locales lends Water for Elephants an aura of tangible realism, calling attention to the smelly, perverse, miserable origins of this celebrated “family” entertainment.
Boasting a talented cast and some truly spectacular art direction, this appreciation of a vanished world of vagabond hucksters provides plenty of entertainment in the old Hollywood style with only a few minor hiccups to distract from the main event.
Gregory Fichter
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