When a bestselling book becomes a movie, those who had read the book first have a higher expectation of what they are viewing than those who haven’t. Every time a Harry Potter film or when the Dan Brown books like the Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons, there is always someone saying “That’s not how they did it in the book!” I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to that, but what I have tried to teach myself is that the movie is another way of telling the tale.
This movie was directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Constantine) brings us back to the thirties, when the depression is strong, and Russian immigrants send their son Jacob played by Robert Pattinson (Twilight series, Harry Potter) to an Ivy League School to become an Veterinarian. Due to a fatality accident that killed his parents, left him alone without family. Due to the severity, he left college only to skip his final exam and he decides to hit the rails to get away from his troubles.
The train he went on was the traveling circus. He told the circus he was a certified vet to sway to keep him on. The ringmaster who allowed him to stay on the train name August played by Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Bastards, The Three Musketeers) who is married to the leading star of the act, Marlena played by Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line, Legally Blonde). August is a very dominant and forceful man who does what he wants and what will put his traveling circus on the map. Due to his main animal that was put down, he August found an abandoned elephant were Jacob is new role to take care of the elephant. Through these events, Jacob falls in love with Marlena, August’s wife.
The movie visual is great. It really captured the old style of circus that before this we only saw in the movie Dumbo or some of the old Mickey Mouse cartoons. The visual of the circus, seeing the animals used and the pounding of the tent stakes were so beautifully portrayed.
The best part of this movie is Christoph Waltz character August. Now I am not saying he is a good guy because his role is ultimately the bad guy, who strikes fear in everyone’s heart, being so unpredictable and almost with a bipolar type mentality. He played is so well, he was just as good as Hans Landa in Inglorious Bastards or Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs.
What didn’t work for this film was the chemistry between Witherspoon and Pattinson. It was like the only time they would be close is when they were drunk and there was no rhyme or reason to why they would hook up.
I had a hard time with Pattinson playing this character. One thing that bothered me was when his family is Russian immigrants and yet he has no accent nor can speak it very well in the film. There was one point where he was teaching August how to say some commanding words in Russian and Waltz playing August could pronounce the words better than Pattinson could! What a joke! That stimulated to how Pattinson and Witherspoon spoke as if they were in the 20th century and yet everyone else spoke as if they were in the 30’s. It drove me nuts like when Tom Cruise spoke English as a German commander in Valkyrie.
The movie would’ve been more interesting to see more of the circus act, and cut the movie down by at least 15 minutes. There were times it felt that the movie was repeating its own storyline within the movie.
The movie was entertaining. It had potential and it had most of the right ingredients, but it just couldn’t be pulled off. I would recommend renting this film when it comes out. However if you are looking for a date movie with the spouse, it might be the choice.
Grade: C
If you liked this film, I recommend:
The Horse Whisperer (1998)
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Dumbo (1941)