water for elephants movie review?

so i went to see water for elephants today with my friend j.lee! i think i've mentioned it before, but i read the book a couple months ago and thought it was fantastic, and i had been checking in on the fan website every couple days and watched the spot on HBO and was generally really excited about the whole thing. i love reese witherspoon and rpattz too, despite twilight. remember me was just too good. so off i went to the theater, got a good seat and no popcorn since it's way too pricey nowadays, and got myself all settled in for tornado of emotions the book gave me to happen in just about two hours.

****WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS****

i didn't really like how they didn't talk about jacob's time in the nursing home, well, AT ALL. no rosemary or fight at the lunch table or anything. it just started off with older jacob at the circus, in the rain (?!) and telling his story. i loved how charlie had the old photograph of marlena and august in his office. and i thought hal holbrook was a great older jacob, despite how small his part actually was. i also loved how instead of jacob stating he was polish or having that prayer scene on his first night on the train like in the book, it showed that he spoke polish at home. in the book i kind of forgot that jacob understood polish and i didn't remember him speaking more than a sentence or two, so when, in the book, he found out that rosie only understood polish, i was a little surprised.

i think the act of combining uncle al and august into one character worked perfectly in the movie. i was a little uneasy on the idea at first but they handled it well. i thought christoph waltz was absolutely perfect as august although i could hear his accent quite a few times throughout the film. can't say the same for rpattz, though, who seems to have perfected his american accent due to all the american movie roles he's gotten lately. he narrated the movie and i thought he did a good job of that.

speaking of rob pattinson, i loved loved LOVED his portrayal of jacob. let me make something clear: I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE CHARACTER OF JACOB. he is one of my favorite fictitious characters ever. and i thought rpattz pulled him off real well. a round of applause, please. he did me proud. reese witherspoon was also a very good marlena, although i still kind of think someone younger would have been able to do just as well with the part. speaking of marlena, what was with this orphan thing in the movie?! i thought her backstory in the book was just fine, and it didn't need to be so overdramatic like they made it in the movie. *huff*

so basically, i thought everyone cast fit their roles perfectly. brilliant casting. brilliant cinematography, too, might i add, and the scenery was gorgeous. with the music and the clothes and everything, you really felt like you were in 1931. although i did catch two slip-ups: raising the tent near the beginning of the movie, they showed the american flag with all 50 stars on it. i'm pretty sure alaska and hawaii were not states in 1931...and during the parade through town with rosie closer to the end, you saw one of those trains on an elevated platform zoom by in the background. other than that, it was flawless. i especially liked the speakeasy scene.

tai the elephant was absolutely adorable as rosie. when you saw her sneak off to get some lemonade, i could tell that she had officially won over the hearts of everyone in the packed theater i was in. she and rob had some great chemistry on set, although as far as reese and himself, i would have liked a little more. it seemed a bit flat to me, but...

OH. THEY NEVER SAID ONCE IN THE ENTIRE MOVIE THAT AUGUST WAS SCHIZOPHRENIC. I JUST REALIZED AND THAT REALLY PEEVES ME. speaking of peeves in the movie, let's talk about walter. he was probably my favorite character in the book and you barely saw him in the movie. i was pretty upset over that. also, he wasn't a ginger. i thought that because he was redheaded and kind of hotheaded it was a nice character trait, but he had dark hair instead. meh. i also didn't much like the sequence of events where the shit hit the fan. everything from marlena's first slapping august to august pinning her to the ground when the menagerie broke loose bothered me. a lot of it was out of order and my friend who i went with who hadn't read the book was confused by some of the things that had happened. also, would jacob really just hop off the train without rosie, even if it was to save his own ass? absolutely not. it was revealed both in the book and movie that jacob was staying to protect both marlena and rosie. if he and marlena hadn't been found in their hotel room, would they have gone back to try and save rosie? absolutely not. they were already talking about ringling by then.

some other parts of the movie i enjoyed: when august's character is revealed for the first time at the poker table. i thought it was a great introduction to his character. i also loved when jacob decided to put down silver star, even if it meant getting redlighted. both in the book and movie, i love that scene. you are shown just the kind of man jacob really is. i also loved the big top sequence where you see clips of all the acts--i've never been to a circus but have always wanted to go, so as one who can only imagine, it was breathtaking. as i mentioned before, i loved the speakeasy scene and when rosie steals a little lemonade. and despite my annoyances at some of the changes the movie made to the book, overall, i really loved it. i'm sure i'll think of more things that bothered me later on, but for now, initially, arriving home immediately after seeing the film, i really liked it. it's nothing compared to the book, let me tell you, but as a standalone movie, it's brilliant. let's hope it wins lots of awards and that others love it as much as i did! :)