Water for Elephants

Starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson, this period film has a predictable plot and fails to make the most of its circus setting.

Robert Pattinson plays Jacob, a veterinarian working at a circus, who finds himself in a love triangle with the ringmaster and a gymnast in Water for Elephants.

Water for Elephants

Director: Francis Lawrence

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon and Christopher Waltz

An ageing man telling the story of the biggest romance in his life was the framework for the stellar hit The Notebook, a film that Water for Elephants desperately tries to ape. Unfortunately, this Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon film spectacularly fails to do so.

Those wondering how R-Patz will fare outside the Twilight limelight, and in more serious roles without a built-in tween audience, will discover that the British actor retains his charm and that his steely eyes are well-suited to producing a heartfelt glower. Unfortunately, as for being a charming leading man who can carry a movie, Pattinson, at this early point in his career at least, lacks the guile and craft of his most obvious rival Ryan Gosling.

In the adaptation of Sara Gruen's 2006 bestseller, Pattinson plays Jacob Jankowski, the son of Polish immigrants whose career as a veterinarian is over before it even begins when a car crash kills his parents. Discovering that his father has left him poor right at the onset of the Great Depression of the 1930s, Jacob has to quit college and hit the road in search of work. En route to Albany, he joins a circus run by the venomous circus master August Rosenbluth (Waltz) who is married to the star attraction, the gymnast Marlena (Reese Witherspoon).

Frustrated love seems to be Pattinson's staple subject matter. Employed as a veterinarian, Jankowski bonds with the boss's wife when he humanely decides to put down the horse she performs with and risks suffering the wrath of her husband. And boy does he have a temper.

Christopher Waltz is still basking in the glow of his multiple award-winning turn as a Nazi in Quentin Tarantino's revisionist Second World War escapade Inglorious Basterds. On this showing, it's easy to see why the German actor is in such demand. He is totally beguiling as a ruthless tyrant whose command must be accepted or else. Yet the excellence of his performance presents a problem: the director Francis Lawrence keeps the camera on the German actor when he should be building up the tension between Jacob and Marlena.

Helming a romantic drama is something of a career change for Lawrence, whose previous credits have been the sci-fi films I am Legend and Constantine. While Lawrence has previously shown a penchant for special effect-packed dramas, he hasn't yet mastered the art of character development, which is essential for this kind of romantic, period fare.

There was also a love triangle at the centre of another great circus movie, Carol Reed's 1956 drama Trapeze. Yet while that Burt Lancaster vehicle both surprised and had amazing performing feats at its heart, one of the major drawbacks of Water for Elephants is the failure to make the most of the potential of its setting. That, combined with the predictable plot, will leave most fans disappointed.