WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (2011 - cert 12A)

While I was at the most recent Secret Cinema I was stood with my friends talking to one of the actors, a child who had lost her mother, and realised that I was stood outside a mock-up of an old cinema in French occupied Algeria. On it's outside wall were posters of old films, and I joked about how all old film posters were the same.  A man and a woman embracing in the foreground with all sorts of flashes of action snapped from the film going on behind them. Gone With The Wind is the perfect example.

Later as I filed out of the Secret Cinema venue and hurried to catch a train to a BBQ in Waterloo I saw a poster for Water For Elephants, which I knew I was seeing the next day, the girlfriend having put in a request after a long sequence of us going to see 'my' choices.

It's clearly a throwback to those posters, the similarities jump out immediately. In many ways it sums up the whole film. It really is an old-fashioned love story, it looks like it, it feels like it. It even starts like it. Right from the opening scene that is only just short of clunky, where an old man turns up at the circus only to do so late and miss the show. He is taken into the office by a staff member who tries to ring round to find out which retirement home he is from. They talk and it transpires that the old man used to work at the circus, not just any circus, the Benzini Brothers Circus years, years ago back in 1931. Cue laboured flashback. Yes, you're right, it's been done before, many times and it immediately reminded me of the opening of Titanic, but fortunately not nearly as irritating.  Anyway, we drift back to 1931 and the old man's voice becomes that of R-Patz, sorry Robert Pattinson, this is a serious role for the heart throb from Barnes as he tries to move away from the teen-vampire-flick market, dispelling with the nickname that the female teenage masses have given him. 

Pattinson plays Jacob, a young man who has it all, about to become a vet and embark on a successful life. It quickly goes wrong though when his parents die in a car crash. Heartbroken, he doesn't finish his training, he is thrown out of his house and wanders the railways searching for the first train he comes across to take him to a new life. That first train is the travelling Benzini Brothers Circus and he quickly snaps himself a job as the vet. The film then focuses on a love triangle involving Jacob, Reese Witherspoon's character Marlena, the star attraction of the circus with her horses act, and August, the owner of the circus played by Chrisopth Waltz (Inglorious Basterds). 

It's fair to say that I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of this film, I said yes conscious of the fact that I was always dragging the girlfriend to the next Superhero film. This hesitancy could be to blame for the fact that while I was in the cinema there were parts of the film where I was bored, it dragged more often than a film should. So much so that when I left, I was convinced I hadn't enjoyed the film at all. I rolled my eyes as we got out, and in my defence the girlfriend didn't enjoy it much either. She thought long stretches were dull as well. Then the more time that passed, the more we both found ourselves thinking about it, the more scenes appeared in my mind, the more moments we kept bringing up in conversation. The weirdest thing was that the more I thought about the scenes, the more positively I felt about them. My attitude now is completely different to that of when I left the cinema. 

I've pondered long and hard about why this phenomenon has taken place and I can only really put it down to the characters and the actors. The film is very tightly written by the experienced hand of Richard LaGravenese, who has things like the Bridges of Madison County and The Fisher King under his belt, so credit should go there where it is due, but it's the actors who really bring the characters to life. All three corners of the love triangle on show here shine, each in different ways. R-Patz, sorry, Robert Pattinson is who the film follows but is probably the least interesting character of them all. That isn't to say his time on screen is dull though. He is assured and confident and keeps the film pushing along with a performance that does suggest he might actually make the transition to 'proper' actor. His Jacob is instantly likeable and although it seems simple and obvious to state the importance of that, it's not easy to actually pull it off. Reese Witherspoon doesn't stand out in Water For Elephants, but again this is not a criticism. She has become so consistently dependable that we just expect her to be nothing short of very good. She has a gift of always being someone different in all of her roles, but not changing much about her at all. She always looks and sounds like Reese Witherspoon, but she is always someone else despite that. Waltz, once again, is the show stealer. Like in Inglorious he plays a charming nutcase, smiling his way through the film but behind that grin you know he is a complete and utter maniac. It's great to watch but it's a shame that it feels like it's been done before, all be it being a more child friendly version in this instance. 

For director Francis Lawrence it's an interesting move. Following Constantine and I Am LegandCGI, highlighted in I Am Legend, is again apparent here, the animals looking cheap, lifted straight from a B-Movie.

So, it would seem that's a positive review, which I certainly wouldn't have foreseen if you had grabbed me as I was filing out of the exit of my local multiplex. It leaves me in quite a difficult position, because I would recommend it, but in doing so I would be stating that it is acceptable to leave me bored during a film if afterwards I gradually change my mind. Yes it's slightly tedious in places and a bit overly soppy throughout, but if you can get past that accept the old-school nature of it then you may just be surprised....