A veterinary student abandons his studies after his parents are killed and joins a traveling circus as their vet.
A swoony, enjoyable, old-time romance whose best acts are a period-perfect Pattinson and a playful pachyderm. But despite its best endeavours, it can’t quite punch above ’plex-pleasing weight.
Water For Elephants is by-the-numbers stuff thanks to few surprises in the plot department.
Familiar but enjoyable. Not being funny, the elephant (Rosie, played by nine-foot enchantress Tai) is the real star as the most moving and only joyful presence in sight.
Pattinson isn't quite the stiff he appears to be in Twilight, the costumes and sets look great, and the film could be recommended to patients who have been advised by their doctors to avoid stress or excitement.
You'll bathe happily in the gorgeous aesthetics of the film, but be left cold and damp by the lack of chemistry between Pattinson and Witherspoon.
Toweringly soppy with heroically daft moments, but slick enough.
Big top-notch production, rock-bottom script.
A big, soppy, old-fashioned circus romance.
The kind of bland, old-fashioned movie that reminds you why they don't make 'em like this any more.
Without Waltz, this might qualify as perhaps the dullest circus movie ever made, dragged down by a sappy script and a soppy romance.
Vapidly pleasurable, the film works within a simple and well-worn groove, but it does work, almost in spite of itself.
This movie has some theoretically spectacular moments, which somehow don't read on screen as spectacular or even all that exciting.
A lush period-melodrama.
If you don’t expect a classic heartbreaker you’ll enjoy this old-fashioned movie romance.
No circus films ends without a spectacular scene in which the animals are let loose, the train crashes or the big top catches fire, and this one is neither an exception or exceptional.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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