Water for Elephants

So the other night, I watched Water for Elephants with my mom and brother. And of course I was a little hesitant. After some of the crudeness that was seen from Robert Pattinson at the MTV Movie Awards and the fact that... Well, I've mostly only seen him in Twilight movies, I was hesitant. While he has improved in the franchise that has made him oh-so-famous, I couldn't tell if I'd really actually like him in any other role. Or could take him seriously in any other role.

But surprisingly, he did pretty well in Water For Elephants. I had read the synopsis of the story online before I had seen the movie [I never actually planned on watching it]. So I was skeptical if Pattinson could pull off such a serious role. And throughout the whole movie, I probably only giggled at him [not with him] twice. Impressive when it comes to me watching him on screen.

SPOILERS! READ AT YOUR OWN DAMN RISK!





For those of you who don't know, it is a story of the circus. In this case, a circus known as Benzini Brothers Circus [or something]. Anyway, our leading male, Jacob Jankowski is just about to take his final exam at Cornell to become a veterinary when he gets tragic news. His parents are killed in a car accident. And from there, everything spirals downward. Jacob learns how his father was in debt [paying for Jacob's tuition] and now the young man has no where to go.

And so he managed to hop on board with a circus. Eventually, he becomes the resident animal  assistant. Either way, the main guy in charge of animals is crazy.

And we meet our ringleader and owner of the circus, August, and his beautiful wife, Marlena. The wife is the center of attention in the ring with her many horses. And so begins the slow dance of Marlena and Jacob. We learn that August is definitely a character, which his somewhat bi-polar personality. Eventually, he goes too far and is about to have Jacob red-lighted [thrown from the moving train] when both Jacob and Marlena decide to go together.

They make love in a hotel room [probably the second time I was laughing a bit] when they are found. They are both taken back to the train. That night, Jacob goes to kill August while he is sleeping but Marlena is there and trapped under August's arm. Jacob leaves him be.
 Later, we find out that 4 of Jacob's friends were red-lighted and only 2 survived. And of course these guys can't let August get away with that. So they let out all the animals during a show... Chaos ensues and August is killed... By the elephant. Oh yeah, there is an elephant in this movie. After Jacob takes out the star horse near the beginning [who had some serious hoof issues that would have resulted in immense pain and death anyway], August gets an elephant. To replace the horse... Yeah... Anyway, the elephant's name is Rosie. She's cool and understands Polish commands, not English commands. So the crazy animal guy thinks she's stupid. She's not.



Anyway, I definitely think this is a pretty good movie. Well, good enough to rent but not see in theaters. But then again, this genre isn't really my type.

I should make up some type of rating system at some point. I'll work on that.