A beautiful adaptation of the novel, Francis Lawrence's Water for Elephants is sure to blow you away. Sarah Gruen's novel shows the grittiness of the Depression and romanticizes a story of an ivy-league almost graduate who ditches finals and hops a train in hopes of escaping his sorrows. Unbeknownst to Jacob, it was a circus train and he finds himself on a wild adventure that intertwines him with a dwarf, an elephant, and Marlena, the love of his life.
In the novel Gruen shows the dirty life of the circus in the 1930's and the Depression that affected everybody. The circus was an illusion, tricking and scamming people into spending their money.
In the movie Water for Elephants, Francis Lawrence captures the grittiness and genuinity of the book, casting great characters for Jacob (Robert Pattinson), Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), and August (Christoph Waltz), and perfectly capturing the theme and emotion of Gruen's novel.
The movie purely reflects the book and the mood of the story. This romanticized, pathetic story of two individuals brought together by fate, battling against all odds, is put to picture and beautiful cinematography. I truly fell in love with it. I hated August, pitied, Rosie (the circus's elephant), and was scared for Marlena. I was right in all the action as if I was standing right there beside Jacob when he first met Rosie, or when he lashed out at August. I felt the emotion of Jacob when his friends were redlighted. I got an inside look at what life in the circus and the Depression was really like. From a well written and researched novel came a wonderfully captivating film.
The plot was a close as a two hour movie could be to it's novel. It kept the same rising and falling action as well as the same resolution. Reading the book and watching the movie do not ruin the other, only compliment eachother. And I would highly reccomend this movie to all.
