23.4.11

Water For Elephants

Lee and I went to see Water For Elephants last night. It was fine. Here's the thing, the screenwriter did brilliantly preserve the books magic by not straying to far from Sara Gruen's storyline and imagery. I enjoyed the characters coming to life, the charm and intrigue of the circus back in the day, and the costume designer's choices. Christopher Waltz was amazing as August, the ringleader of the Benzini Brothers Circus. (He plays a hybrid of August and Uncle Al) On the other end of the Big Top, Reese Witherspoon as Marlana, left me wanting more, lots more. (Although she looked fierce) I couldn't figure out if it was because she was acting next to Christopher Waltz or if there was SO LITTLE chemistry between her and Robert Pattinson it just fell flat. Even the 'love' scene seemed un-sexy. And, for a girl who hasn't watched Twilight I get the RP appeal now. Whew. The elephant Rosie was majestic and stole the show, literally. The filmmakers assured audiences that all the animal abuse during the film was actually done on a CG screen and absolutely no animals were harmed. That is hard to watch but pertinent to the story. Would I recommend Water For Elephants? Yes. Ultimately, it's a solid love story...just wish it'd been a little bit more sexy. The only thing sexy was the 170 oz. tub of popcorn we ate...oh yeah.

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