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Water for Elephants (film)

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Water for Elephants
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFrancis Lawrence
Screenplay byRichard LaGravenese
Produced byKevin Halloran
Gil Netter
Erwin Stoff
Andrew R. Tennenbaum
StarringReese Witherspoon
Robert Pattinson
Christoph Waltz
CinematographyRodrigo Prieto
Edited byAlan Edward Bell
Music byJames Newton Howard
Production
companies
Fox 2000 Pictures
3 Arts Entertainment
Crazy Horse Effects
Flashpoint Entertainment
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • April 22, 2011 (2011-04-22)
Running time
120 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$38 million[1]
Box office$109,420,222[1]

Water for Elephants is a 2011 American romantic drama film based on Sara Gruen's novel of the same name, directed by Francis Lawrence, from a screenplay by Richard LaGravenese. It stars Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson and Christoph Waltz.[2][3]

The film was released in the United States and Canada on April 22, 2011, and received mixed to positive reviews from film critics; it garnered a "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based upon aggregated reviews,[4] and a rating of "Mixed or average reviews" at Metacritic.[5]

Plot

After his 71 year old son forgets to show up, an elderly Jacob Jankowski (Hal Holbrook), decides to see the circus alone. While there he is found by two circus workers, who insist on helping him. Jacob mentions that he was part of the Benzini Circus in 1931 and one of the workers is intrigued, having heard that the Benzini Circus failed after a terrible disaster. He asks Jacob for details of that disaster, and so Jacob begins to tell his story.

Flashback to the prohibition era, during the Great Depression, 1931, where a 23-year-old Jacob (Robert Pattinson) is a Cornell student. While taking his final exam, he is informed that his parents have been killed in a car crash. His father has left huge debts, and the bank forecloses on Jacob's home. Feeling that there is no point in returning to school, and having no home, he jumps onto a passing train where he meets Camel (Jim Norton), who promises him a job and tells him to get some sleep.

In the morning, Jacob discovers that he jumped on the Benzini Brothers Circus train, and while watching the train unload, He sees a beautiful woman, Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), performing with her horses. Jacob does odd jobs all day and that evening is summoned to meet August (Christoph Waltz), the circus owner, the head animal trainer, and Marlena's husband. August orders him thrown off the train, but Jacob reveals that he studied veterinary science at Cornell and has noticed a problem with Silver, the starring horse of the show. August agrees to hire him as a vet for the circus animals.

The next day, Jacob examines Silver, diagnoses laminitis, and suggests that Silver should be put to sleep, because the condition is agonizing for the horse and incurable. August refuses and orders Jacob make the horse ready for the next show. Marlena is heartbroken and tells Jacob that August will not allow the horse to stop performing. Jacob, unable to bear the pain the horse and the girl are in, steals a gun and shoots the horse.

When August finds out he is furious, and has several men grab Jacob and pretend they are going to 'red-light' him (referring to the practice of throwing men off a moving train, either as a punishment or as a way to avoid paying their wages). August explains that his word is law, and that Jacob will be thrown off if he doesn't do as he is told. Jacob gets the message and August bunks him in a room with the dwarf, Walter (Mark Povinelli) and Walters' dog.

Soon after, August reveals the new starring act for the circus; a 53-year-old elephant named Rosie. At an intimate celebration that evening, August asks Jacob to be Rosie's trainer/caretaker, and Jacob admits to August and Marlena that he did not graduate from Cornell and is not certified as a vet. August shrugs it off and hires him anyway. August becomes intoxicated and goes to bed, leaving Marlena and Jacob to share a brief dance together.

Jacob is given a bullhook with which to train Rosie, but has no idea how to use it. When Rosie doesn't respond quickly enough to commands, August uses it instead. Rosie becomes afraid of him, and stampedes during a show, nearly throwing Marlena from her back. Marlena covers the elephant's panicked retreat beautifully, but is slightly injured as a result. When Jacob later tells August that he found Rosie and returned her to her rail car, August, still in a fury over Marlena's injury, brutally beats Rosie with the bullhook, while Jacob is physically prevented from stopping the assault. Jacob confronts him soon afterward, but August is remorseful, provides alcohol for treating Rosie's wounds, and is upset that Marlena now refuses to talk to him. He begs Jacob to talk to her. Marlena and August do reconcile and the three of them form a guarded relationship.

During Rosie's recovery, Jacob learns why she was not performing - the spoken commands that she knows are all in Polish. Jacob teaches the correct commands to August, who is thrilled. The circus brings in packed crowds and August takes Marlena and Jacob out to celebrate. Police raid the bar and everyone rushes out. In a confusion, Marlena and Jacob lose track of August. They share a kiss, but Marlena leaves abruptly telling Jacob not to follow.

Camel falls ill due to drinking Jamaican ginger extract, and is left unable to work. Jacob realizes that Camel will be "red-lighted" when he is discovered. Camel has mentioned a son that lives in a town where the circus will be performing in three few weeks, so Jacob and Walter decide to hide him until then.

Meanwhile, August's suspicions about Marlena and Jacob reach a peak, and he hits Marlena. Jacob retaliates and Walter takes him back to their room, where Marlena finds him and warns him that August has ordered him "red-lighted". Jacob and Marlena jump from the moving train and go to a hotel, where they make love. The following morning, they make plans for Jacob to finish his degree and they can both join the Ringling Brothers circus. Augusts' men find them as they prepare to leave, beating Jacob unconscious and kidnapping Marlena.

Jacob returns to the circus to find her. Jacob returns to the room where they had hidden Camel, and finds Queenie alone. Livid, Jacob takes a knife and breaks into August's rail car, intending to kill him. However, he finds Marlena being held down by a sleeping August and he finds he cannot do it. In the morning, Marlena tells him that Camel and Walter have been red-lighted and found dead by their friends who vow to seek revenge on August.

The next morning, Marlena wakes Jacob and he tells her to sneak away after the first performance. They plan to escape again together. However, the men who survived being thrown off the train return and release all the menagerie animals as revenge. Chaos ensues.

As performers and audience members are chased from the arena by the lions and bears, August spots Jacob in the crowd, and attempts to kill him. Marlena grabs the bullhook and hits August, distracting him from Jacob. August chases her down and pins her to the ground under Rosie's feet, attempting to strangle her with the bullhook. Jacob tries to go to her aid but is stopped and beaten by the same henchman that beat him unconscious at the hotel. Rosie spots Marlena in distress and in her anxiety, pulls her tether spike out of the ground and swings it at August. The blow she delivers is fatal and August dies. The circus is shut down.

The elderly Jacob reveals that he did eventually get his certification as a vet. He and Marlena joined the Ringling circus as they had planned at the hotel. Jacob reveals that they went on to get married and have five children, three of them while working with Rosie in the new circus. He says they had a wonderful life together, as he had promised Marlena, but she has been dead for many years now and the kids forget to visit.

Jacob asks if he can have a job selling tickets and travel with this circus, promising to return to his elder care facility with no trouble if it doesn't work out. The owner agrees, saying they will set a record for the oldest man to run away with the circus. Jacob laughs and says "I'm not running away. I'm coming home."

Cast

Production

Filming

On a budget of $38 million,[6] filming began on May 20, 2010 in Los Angeles, Piru, Fillmore in California; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Kensington and Chickamauga in Georgia.[7][8] The filming wrapped up on August 4, 2010. This is the second time Witherspoon and Pattinson have costarred together as they had filmed a deleted scene from 2004's Vanity Fair in which he was her estranged son. Reshoots for the film were scheduled for mid January, 2011.[9]

Release

Critical response

Water for Elephants has received mixed to positive reviews. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 60% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 168 reviews, with an average score of 6.1 out of 10. The critical consensus is: "It's a tale tastefully told and beautifully filmed, but Water for Elephants suffers from a pronounced lack of chemistry between its leads."[4] Among Rotten Tomatoes Top Critics, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 44%, based on a sample of 34 reviews.[10] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 reviews from film critics, the film has a rating score of 52% based on 35 reviews.[5]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, stating: "This is good sound family entertainment, a safe PG-13 but not a dumb one, and it's a refreshing interlude before we hurtle into the summer blockbuster season."[11] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review. He stated: "The Reese Witherspoon-Robert Pattinson film 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."[12]

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review, stating that "despite the stars' lack of romantic chemistry, there's much to enjoy in this cinematic retelling of Sara Gruen's big top bestseller, starting with the spectacular circus setting."[13]

Richard Corliss of Time magazine stated: "The proceedings get so slow and saccharine that viewers will relishes the film's moments of redeeming idiocy. In one of them, Marlena whispers to Jacob, "Bring Rosie to my tent and don't tell anyone" — as if the roustabouts wouldn't notice a 12-ft.-tall, 10,000-lb. creature striding down the midway. Granted, they'd also take a look at his handler, the divoon Robert Pattinson; but Rosie has a pretty strong odor too, and that's what will stick to you after seeing Water for Elephants."[14] James Berardinelli, film critic for ReelViews, praised the film, but not its cast, giving it two and a half stars out of four, he wrote: "There's an old-fashioned vibe to Water for Elephants; it's the kind of movie Hollywood once turned out with regularity but rarely does anymore."[15]

Some critics, however, praised the film's cast. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle stated that Pattinson succeeded at holding his own at the center of a major feature and that Witherspoon, while an odd fit for the role, was "actress enough to make it work". He continued: "the affectionate but turbulent dynamic among [Christoph] Waltz, Pattinson and Witherspoon is endlessly watchable".[16] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone also said that Pattinson and Witherspoon "smoldered" under the "golden gaze of Rodrigo Prieto's camera".[17]

Box office

Water for Elephants was released in theaters on April 22, 2011. In the United States and Canada, Water for Elephants was released theatrically in 2,817 conventional theaters. The film grossed $6,924,487 during its opening day on April 22, 2011, with midnight screenings in 2,817 locations.[18] Overall the film made $16,842,353 and debuted at #3 on its opening weekend.[19] On its second weekend, it dropped to #4 and grossed $9,342,413 - $3,313 per theater.[20] By its third weekend it dropped down to #6 and made $6,069,603 - $2,322 per theater.[21] Its total gross box office receipts exceed $111,850,449 dollars.

Controversy

The film's producers have said that the animals were not harmed in the filming, supported by the American Humane Association (AHA) which had monitors on the set and gave the film their “No Animals Were Harmed” in the making certification. However, a controversy emerged surrounding the treatment of the animals prior to the film. A 2005 video released by Animal Defenders International (ADI) shows that prior to the film even being in the works, Tai the elephant was abused by her trainers, Have Trunk Will Travel. The filmed abuse caused the studio and many animal activists including the AHA to speak out against the harm of animals and any indication that Tai was harmed while on the set. ADI contacted AHA, urging them to re-evaluate how they assess the use of animals in films and the statements being made which effectively endorse the use of performing animals.[22][23][24]

A Facebook campaign to boycott the film was formed since the outbreak of the news, but it has not stopped the film from being successful worldwide. Some have questioned the ADI's motives and how the film even came to be, due to the late release of the footage. ADI confirmed that the film was part of a wider investigation and only released to correct misinformation being spread by Tai's trainers that she was trained only through use of positive reinforcement and treats. ADI's footage refutes this.

References

  1. ^ a b "Water for Elephants (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
  2. ^ "Full cast and crew for 'Water for Elephants' (2011)". IMDb. Retrieved October 18, 2010.
  3. ^ Anderton, Ethan (2010-02-17). "Christoph Waltz Replacing Sean Penn in 'Water for Elephants'". FirstShowing.net. Retrieved 2010-10-31.
  4. ^ a b "Water for Elephants Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  5. ^ a b "Water for Elephants Reviews, Ratings, Credits". Metacritic. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
  6. ^ Kaufman, Amy (April 21, 2011). "Movie Projector: Tyler Perry's latest 'Madea' film should trample 'Water for Elephants'". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved April 21, 2011.
  7. ^ "The Spectacular Filming Locations of Water For Elephants - Part 1". Reel-Scout.com. Retrieved 2011-05-17.
  8. ^ "The Spectacular Filming Locations of Water For Elephants - Part 2". Reel-Scout.com. Retrieved 2011-05-17.
  9. ^ (2011-01-12). "Hollywood Insider : Robert Pattinson’s Elephants movie reshoots". What'sPlaying.com. Retrieved 2011-01-13
  10. ^ "Water for Elephants Movie Reviews: Top Critics". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  11. ^ Ebert, Roger (2011-04-21). Water for Elephants :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  12. ^ McCarthy, Todd (2011-04-21). "Water for Elephants: Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  13. ^ Turan, Kenneth (2011-04-22). "Movie review: 'Water for Elephants'". LATimes.com. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  14. ^ Corliss, Richard (2011-04-21). "Water for Elephants Review: Under the Big Top with Reese and RPattz". Time.com. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  15. ^ Berardinelli, James (2011-04-23). "Water for Elephants Review". ReelViews. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  16. ^ LaSalle, Mick (2011-04-22). "Water for Elephants review: High-wire circus act". SFGate.com. Retrieved 2011-05-02.
  17. ^ Travers, Peter (2011-04-21). "Water for Elephants Review". RollingStone.com. Retrieved 2011-05-02.
  18. ^ "Water for Elephants (2011) - Daily Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  19. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for April 22-24, 2011". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  20. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for May 6-8, 2011". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2011-05-14.
  21. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for May 13-15, 2011". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2011-05-14.
  22. ^ "Movie Star Electric Shocked". ADI. May 7, 2011. Retrieved May 11, 2011.
  23. ^ "Water for Elephants star electrocuted and beaten with hooks". DailyMail.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-05-12
  24. ^ "Movie Star Electric Shocked". AD-International.org. Retrieved 2011-05-30.
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