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| THE BARBERSHOP MOVIE REVIEW This week's reviewed movie is: Water for Elephants |
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| It's been a while since I've
seen a circus movie combining an old-fashioned jealous romantic
triangle in a one-ring run-down circus setting. It creates magical images of life and hardship, especially on a circus train going to town after town with all the dramas I remember as a young boy. The movie makes you feel like you are in a time zone of the past. I came out of the film with some good memories of my youth, knowing all the sorrows, suffering, and joys of circus life. |
Water for Elephants is an
old-fashion character-driven drama about a Depression-era traveling
circus, and although there is little chemistry between the two leads,
their individual performances still hold the story together -- with a
special nod to Christoph Waltz (who steals the movie) as the circus'
sadistic and megalomaniac owner. It's a nostalgic trip back in time, when you could still run away and join the circus. Good, but not great! |
The
movie begins during the Great Depression, when an unemployed and
recently orphaned veterinary school student lands a job treating
animals with a traveling circus. Things become complicated when he falls in love with one of the show's star attraction performers. The problem with his object of desire is that she is married to a hot-tempered fiercely jealous circus ring-master/owner who is slightly unbalanced and dangerous if he suspects any romance. This is a well-acted Depression-era love triangle circus film full of drunks, tossed-off carnival wisdom, and miserable animals -- including a beautiful elephant named Rosie. |
