Water for Elephants

    Water for Elephants
    2011

    Synopsis

    In this captivating Depression-era melodrama, impetuous veterinary student Jacob Jankowski joins a celebrated circus as an animal caretaker but faces a wrenching dilemma when he's transfixed by angelic married performer Marlena.

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    Cast

    • Robert PattinsonJacob Jankowski
    • Reese WitherspoonMarlena Rosenbluth
    • Christoph WaltzAugust Rosenbluth
    • Paul SchneiderCharlie
    • Jim NortonCamel
    • Hal HolbrookOld Jacob
    • Donna W. ScottBarbara
    • Richard BrakeGrady
    • Stephen Monroe TaylorWade
    • Mark PovinelliKinko / Walter

    Recommendations

    • 88

      Chicago Tribune

      Like "The Notebook," but with an elephant, the unexpectedly good film version of Water for Elephants elevates pure corn to a completely satisfying realm of romantic melodrama.
    • 75

      Tampa Bay Times

      Reese Witherspoon can do a lot of things as an actor but playing a damaged-goods Depression era dame isn't one of them.
    • 75

      Miami Herald

      "Twilight's" Robert Pattinson gets a chance to shed his sparkly vampire persona and play a romantic lead with a pulse. The change suits him.
    • 75

      Philadelphia Inquirer

      Steamy and sexy with a smack of sadism, the movie is a throwback to old-school Hollywood action/romance.
    • 50

      Boxoffice Magazine

      Waltz is the highlight of this glossy but plodding drama, a live wire in a movie that sorely needs a jolt.
    • 50

      Orlando Sentinel

      Whatever romance and charm Gruen summoned forth from these rough and tumble show people living by their own laws in a traveling, self-contained world of poverty and cruelty, director Francis Lawrence has hacked and ground them off.
    • 50

      The Hollywood Reporter

      Will please fans of Sara Gruen's best seller, but it lacks the vital spark that would have made the drama truly compelling on the screen.
    • 50

      The A.V. Club

      It's a tastefully managed, passionless melodrama, full of brooding looks and reasonably sweet moments, but typified by a scantly characterized central couple who bring no sense of engagement to their relationship.

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    • LadyJohn
    • nanibba

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