Huge Disappointment

I saw Water For Elephants, and it was a huge disappointment. I might say that taking such a visceral book, and turning it into such a bland screenplay probably took a great deal of work. Add to that an overbearing and overwrought soundtrack, and you are off to a pretty bad start.

The animals have great acting skills, but Robert Pattinson does not. Reese Witherspoon is good, although her role was not that demanding. No one can beat Christoph Waltz when it comes to playing sophisticated, but diabolical characters, so it was not all bad.

There is a lot a tension created in the book, because at beginning you know, or think you know, what is going to happen in the end. That structure was not used in the film. Recreating that structure in the film was probably beyond the ability of the screen writer and director here, but I do think that something was lost by dropping this. It is always a shame to see so much money wasted on a such a mediocre script.

So I don't end on such a negative note, the cinematography was pretty good, and I also enjoyed the scene, near the end, when the wild animals got loose and chase everyone through the circus tent.

If you are interested, I posted the trailer in my March 8, 2011 post.