500 Films: #10 Water for Elephants

You may sue me. I am a Robert Pattinson fan. As such, I decided to woman up and accept that his status as current "Hollywood IT Guy" will inevitably pair him with various actresses and he might never star in a film with Kristen Stewart again. (I'm guilty of still not having watched Remember Me though. BUT I *DID* sponsor tickets. So I *DID* contribute to sales! There!) Anyway, that's why I looked forward to Water for Elephants.

Weeeelll, also because I like Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz is my new idol villain.

I like it. I partially read the book before watching, so I went in the theater with an idea of how the story would be like. (Yes, and I skipped to the end! Guilty.) The backdrop of the movie was the 1930s, when traveling circuses were popular in the U.S. The set production was beautiful. The costumes, the lighting, makeup. It was a wonderful representation of the time period. I have no clue as to how accurate it was, but I definitely felt the fantasy of being there.

Rob seems, happily, to be a more natural actor when he's out of the "Edward" persona. He delivered as Jacob and his American accent improved. Sure, we diehard fans were there for the smoldering looks and the glimpses at his handsome mug (Gad. He really IS something to look at, you know.) But some of us can be very judgmental critics, no matter how much we worship the guy. So I'm quite glad I did not cringe like I usually do when I watch any of the Twilight movies. I think the presence of TWO Oscar-winning costars made him pull up his game a bit, and was a learning experience for him.

Sheesh, do I have to talk about Reese and Christoph. I'll talk about Christoph. Christoph... almost made me cry. He is so effective as a bad guy, I kind of wonder if he's like that in real life. The scene with Rosie. I just wanted to reach in and grab him and shake him!

Regarding the novel by Sara Gruen, a friend mentioned that he felt that there were a lot of unnecessary scenes in the book. And when I thought about it, I think there weren't any unnecessary scenes in the movie, so the edited version of the script was good. The story had a smooth flow to it and there weren't times where we would get bored just waiting for something to happen. Actually, when I did find myself ABOUT to have that feeling, August, Christoph's character, would come out eyes blazing with his bullhook. Then I'd be freaking out. Haha.

I closed my eyes during the love scene with Reese. Thankfully it was short. Which means, I WILL be buying the DVD and watching this movie again. I'm weird that way.