Water for Elephants
Saw this one a few days ago, but as I'm sitting in a hotel room in Pennsylvania trying to wind down from a rough nine and a half hours of driving, I decided it would be a good time to write the entry. Let me start off by saying that I was a huge fan of the book. Loved it. I thought Sara Gruen did an excellent job creating a wonderful cast of deeply developed characters who exist in an incredibly interesting time and place. It was vivid storytelling at its best. So, I was really looking forward to seeing the movie adaptation. Generally when I like the book, I also expect to like the movie- and I think more often than not, I do end up liking the movie as well as the book, if not more so. So, long story short, I fully expected to love the hell out of this movie. And at first, I did. I came out of it thinking that director Francis Lawrence and crew did a wonderful job capturing the spirit of the novel and the essence of the time and place that serve as the story's setting. I also thought it was gorgeously shot and the casting was spot on. Reese Witherspoon was stunning as circus star Marlena. Robert Pattinson gave one of his best performances as the circus's vet, Jacob (As an aside: I really like Pattinson as an actor and I'm really rooting for him to do well. I kind of get tired of the backlash against young actors who take on roles that are popular with the so-called tween audience....I mean, particularly if they show they can act. Yes, Twilight isn't for everyone... and I also don't think it's a great showcase for either Pattinson or Kristen Stewart's skills as actors... but I really do believe that both have some incredible chops. I'm just hoping they can find the roles...and separation from previous roles to show their stuff) And Christoph Waltz gave another incredible (and manic) performance as August, the ringleader of the Benzini Brothers Circus. (In terms of an incredibly short plot synopsis, Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob finding love in the midst of a Depression-era circus and the chaos that ensues therein.... including an absolutely horrific circus disaster...good stuff).
At any rate, all that did work. And I hold to it even now. That said, the more I thought about it, the more I soured on the movie a bit. It's not that it was bad, it's more that it was incomplete. Some folks may be a bit upset that the film makers decided to make August a composite character of the book's August and Uncle Al- that did not bother me so much. Nor did other condensing efforts. That's not what I meant by incomplete. What was really lacking from the film version of the story was the rich character development that Gruen brought to her book. In the movie, relationships seemed to materialize out of nowhere or out of improbable situations. Anyone who read the book would know that Jacob and Kinko/Walter had a tense relationship for a while during the story and it took some doing for the tension to melt and a friendship to be forged. In the movie, the tension is more hinted at and the resolution/friendship was more abrupt. Much of the Jacob-Walter relationship was merely skipped over. And this was true of a number of other plot developments (another example: older Jacob's conversation with the circus manager...I imagine that if you hadn't read the book, the end of the movie might be a bit confusing... and abrupt... if not completely unbelievable). I understand that when trying to condense hundreds of pages of a novel into a two hour plus movie, tough decisions have to be made, and Lawrence and company did do an admirable job condensing a lot of the plot without losing the core spirit of the story. That said, I think I might have been a little lost if I had not read the book...or, at the very least, I'm sure I would have been a little confused, and I probably wouldn't have liked the movie as much as I did. I was able to connect a number of dots that Lawrence only really hinted at...or winked at... in the movie. The end result was a story that felt...I don't know... rushed... and perhaps a bit cobbled together. To take it a bit further, I really don't think you'd be able to enjoy the movie as much without reading the book. I wonder what someone who hadn't read the book before seeing the movie would think. My best guess is that they would think it was ok...tops.
And yet... I really did like the movie. Again, I loved how Lawrence and crew were able to capture the spirit of the book... and it's really that spirit that makes the book such a fun read. The movie just comes off with a feel that I really liked. And I'm very big on a movie feeling right. I think I've mentioned that before... I love "feel" movies. Whatever that means... (sorry, I'm beginning to feel sufficiently wound down here... and am getting damn tired). Is it fair for me to grade this on a curve? As a companion to the book, I think it did well... without that though....? In the end, it was a lot of fun, I liked the performances, and it felt right. So yeah... it was pretty good... regardless of the need for the book...right? My gut/heart says this was an A- movie. My head says solid B. Hmmm... maybe I shouldn't over-think it...
Grade: A- (for now?)
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