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"Water
for Elephants" arrives dead in the water when you have your leading
lady and man, playing lovers, sharing zero chemistry making it appear as
if the villain is overacting when he isn't.

The
screenplay, by Richard LaGravenese, based on the best seller by Sara
Gruen, is played against the same backdrop of the circus, Great
Depression and Prohibition as the book but some characters have been
dropped, others added and a main one combined.

It
has been awhile since Hollywood has tackled a circus movie and the
director, Francis Lawrence, of this one should have seen what was done
in the past. "Water For Elephants" does not have the excitement, the
color and/or the power fo the circus or the grittiness that the era of
the film calls for.

The
love triangle in the movies has become such a cliche that it is up to
the actors involved to add that something that will surprise the
audience and raise it out of an ordinary melodrama. Robert Pattison is a
one note actor, a low note at that, who fades into the background when
there is another actor on the screen. Reese Witherspoon has nothing to
do here but look good in circus outfits or costumes suggesting the Jean
Harlows or Carole Lombards of yesterday. Christoph Waltz has the meaty
role and sinks his teeth into it but to no avail. It is Rosie, the
elephant, who steals the movie from the actors but isn't used enough to
create a film worth seeing.

Instead
of taking time out of your life to see "Water For Elephants" read the
book. Another alternative would be to rent one of the Hollywood circus
films like "Trapeze" with Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster and Gina
Lollobridgida or "The Greatest Show On Earth" with Betty Hutton,
Charlton Heston and Cornel Wilde, neither classics but both more
enjoyable dealing with the circus and love triangles and, definitely,
more interesting, not necessarily better, actors.

"Shoot for the moon.

Even if you miss it

you will land among

the stars."
Lester Louis Brown, 1928  American Journalist