There's something special about "Water for Elephants" (April 22). I can feel it. The basic pairing of Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson is not appealing on its own accord, but cast them in an epic Depression-era romance as an orphaned veterinary school dropout who joins a circus to care for the animals and the prize starlet wife of the maniacal ringmaster who falls for the goodhearted lad? Sold.
I tried to get into Water for Elephants, the book (underlined, see), but I wasn't gripped. And if a book fails to stick after 100 pages or three weeks (whichever comes first), we're all but done for. Occasionally I read something and it takes, like, two months to crawl beyond page 75 and then suddenly I'm hooked and done with the book two days later. That did not happen with the paperback copy I borrowed from Vanessa a few years back, and I never even got to the circus. I'm going to this circus, for sure.
Now, I can't knock the source material for my inability to hold attention, and millions of readers seem to love it judging by the weeks and weeks the book spent atop the New York Times Bestsellers List (surely it will return full-force to the trade paperback charts once the movie-tie-in editions hit the checkstands). The same basic thing happened with "Twilight," a truly awful movie based on a truly awful book I just couldn't bring myself to finish, but nothing about "Water for Elephants" suggests a "Twilight" situation. Oh. Except Edward Cullen, I guess.
The movie just looks great. Christoph Waltz, Oscar-winner for his deliciously evil Nazi head-hunter in "Inglourious Basterds," seals the deal by playing the sinister circus master whose shady roadshow operations are threatened by Reese & Robert's dalliance. Yes, please!
The first trailer popped up in theaters around Christmas and immediately "Water for Elephants" announced itself as must-see. The enchanting visual flourishes evoke a sense of magical realism usually reserved for South American novelists. Reese has never looked better (and Pattinson, for that matter, is a lot sexier without the inch-thick white foundation they hide him under in "The Twilight Saga") and the first shot of the trailer could be mistaken for Terrence Malick. The mystical grandeur of the costumed elephant, folkloric images of trains chugging along the distant countryside, the recycled whimsical score from any given Tim Burton film...just watch.
Don't pretend to be above it. Now, head over to Collider for the just-unveiled international trailer and you'll see yet another A-grade trailer, only this time the story is spelled out for us plain and simple without ever being too on-the-nose, and all the appealing elements from our first glimpse are fully intact.
By the way, Christoph Waltz is going to chew the shit out of the gorgeous scenery playing an evil circus ringmaster. That's like Nazi meets clown meets dubious capitalist! And again, I must say, Reese Witherspoon has never looked better. Pay attention in both trailers for the breathtaking shot of Reese riding on the back of a beautiful black-and-white horse as the wind blows through her golden hair.
"Water for Elephants" opens on April 22 just in time for Easter. If the audience reaction to the first trailer I saw, which played before a Christmas matinee of "True Grit" to oohs-and-ahhs and gasps of anticipation from grandparents to my parents to Michael & I and the teenage girls and old men sitting behind us, it's likely to be first choice for a wide demographic spread. It's nice to look forward to a big studio movie being really quality outside of Oscar season.
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