Movie Review: Water For Elephants

Title: Water For Elephants 
Based On: Sara Gruen's - 'Water For Elephants' 
Running Time: 120 minutes
Director: Francis Lawrence 
Writer: Richard LaGravenese
Stars: Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz

'After his parents' death. Jacob Jankowski is left penniless and homeless. Events lead to him joining the circus as their vet, working under their unstable boss, August, whose violent tendencies give everyone reason to be cautious around him, including his beautiful and quiet wife, Marlena, who August is very possessive of and who Jacob finds himself soon falling in love with.'

This was a movie, that from the very beginning evoked emotions in me that I was not ready for and it did not stop doing that. 'Water for Elephants' has been a movie and a book that I've wanted to read and watch for a while. When I saw that the movie was being played on TV I knew that I had to watch and I wasn't disappointed at all! 
The soundtrack to the whole movie was amazing! Some parts was just really elegant and quite magical and then in some parts you had the huge big band jazz music which I love. All the music suited the movie so well. And the huge party scenes made me smile because of all the music that went along with it. 
The movie was told in a flashback format which was done really nicely and to be honest, I think it made me more emotional because it was done in that style. Jacob would speak over one or two pieces of the music which was quite nice because it just gave a little bit more explanation about things. It was linked back to the Wall Street Crash so it did have a nice bit of history along with the plot line. 
I was in love with the scenery of the movie but that might be because I love seeing old circuses. They showed the way that the circus was put up and it just made it so much more enjoyable to watch. They had circus performers in the background of some of the scenes which was really nice to see because it made it realistic. It was nice to be able to see the classic clowns and the juggling.
August was the perfect villain an Walz played the character so, so well.He brought the character completely to life, you were able to tell that there was something wrong with the character and I ended up hating him so much. You wanted karma to come around to him after everything he did. Waltz made sure that in the end, you would have no pity for his character. 
I'm a huge fan of Robert Pattinson and his acting and he did an amazing job in this movie. There were some really emotional scenes that he had to act in and he did and fantastic job. I felt so bad for Jacob and I loved seeing him get along with all the other performers in the circus and how some of them formed a small family between them all. 
Though there were a few emotional moments, but they were mixed in with moments that made me both laugh and smile. It was a really nice balance because without it, the movie could be seen as very serious and quite heavy. Having it broken up with some comedic moments really just made it easier to watch. 
The one thing that really did sell this movie to me was that it wasn't 'insta love'. We didn't see Marlena and Jacob just fall in love straight away, as soon as they saw each other. It was gradual and seemed a lot more realistic. I was worried that it was going to be them just falling in love with each other straight from the off, but you could see the way that they're feeling developed for each other. 
I'm really glad that I ended up watching this movie and I'm really looking forward to reading the book now. Definitely one that I'm going to end up getting on DVD. 
Rating: ★★★★1/2