On a night with no other good releases, “Water for Elephants” seemed like the lesser of three evils. However, the movie quickly became the diamond in the rough.

The movie wasn’t very heavily advertised, so not many people knew about it.  That may, however, be one of its strengths.

The story opens with an old man telling a young circus worker about his experience in the greatest circus accident of all time.

After that, the story flashes back to the great depression.

The narrator becomes a young man named Jacob Jankowski (portrayed by Robert Pattinson from “Twilight”). Jacob is fixing to go take his final exam to graduate from college with a degree in veterinary studies.

During the exam, he gets a report that both his parents were killed in a car crash. Then, he finds out that his parents got a loan from the bank so he could pay his tuition, and the bank is taking his house.

At this point, the film gets a little unbelievable. Instead of finishing his exam, Jacob just packs up and walks away from everything he knew.

In reality, everything almost seemed to happen a little too fast, one tragedy after another.

While this may be the way life is for some people, in a film, tragedies need just a little more time to leave an impact on the audience.

Pattinson doesn’t portray very much emotion when he finds out that his parents died and he lost his house. While his lack of an emotional display seems like a flaw at the beginning of the film, it helps to portray a silent rage later throughout its entirety.

Eventually, he hops a train.  He later finds out that the train he’s on is that of the traveling Benzini Brothers Circus.

He does a day’s work for food and, while working, sees the circus’ star attraction, a blonde named Marlena (played by Reese Witherspoon from “Legally Blonde”).

After meeting her husband, the owner of the circus, (a man named August played by Christoph Walz from “Inglorious Basterds”) Jacob gets hired as the circus’ vet.

Witherspoon and Pattinson seem like such an odd choice for romantic interests, considering their age difference (she’s 11 years older than he is), but they pull it off well.

Witherspoon is by far the best star in this film, but she is immediately mislabeled. Upon introduction, her character acts like a snob who is above everyone else. Yet, mere minutes afterward, and for the rest of the movie, her snobbish behavior is gone. It seems like such an odd transition that was never fully explained.

Despite that, Witherspoon captures the image of a delicate and fragile circus star who deeply cares for the animals in the performance.

When compared to her counterpart, however, Witherspoon’s good acting is offset by Pattinson’s silent lack of emotions.

This is the way the movie plays out until the circus gets an elephant named Rosie. Once Rosie enters the picture, Pattinson starts to emote. August is charismatic in some scenes, but he also has a violent temper, and when Rosie doesn’t listen to him, he stabs her several times.

After the first beating August gives Rosie, the audience gets to see where Pattinson’s silent emotions come to be an advantage. Instead of outlandish overreactions like one would find in a horribly-made Stephen King movie, Pattinson’s anger is silent and seething.

Jacob wants to hurt August after August hurts Rosie. The audience can see it in his eyes and in his scowl. He cares for the elephant deeply.

“Water for Elephants” does so many things well, that it’s pretty easy to overlook Pattinson’s apparent lack of emotion throughout the beginning of the film.

The imagery of the film is wonderful, as “Water for Elephants” shows the audience what it’s like to live in a circus. The circus becomes a family, and everybody knows everybody. It’s a hard nomadic lifestyle that not just anybody can survive in.

It’s not just the circus scenes that are done well, though.  In one scene, August, Marlena and Jacob all go to a secret party. Since the film is set during prohibition, the party is busted by the police, and everybody is forced to scatter.

Multiple times throughout the movie, a record player or instruments around the main characters will play popular songs from the era, like those composed by Louis Armstrong.

In addition to the vivid imagery, comes the story itself. August and Jacob are embroiled in deep conflict over Jacob’s morals in reference to how he feels Rosie should be treated, as well as Jacob’s growing love for Marlena all throughout the film.

That being said, the story does tend to have a few false climaxes that don’t serve to add suspense, but instead make the audience wonder what the purpose of the scenes were.

Case and point, when Jacob and Marlena run away together to a hotel after jumping off the circus train, August’s men find them within ten more minutes of the film and beat Jacob up. Then, they take Marlena back.

After that, Jacob finds his way back to the train that the circus is on IMMEDIATELY. The scene effectively served no purpose. Logically, if August found Jacob with Marlena, he should have killed him. Instead, they just take her and leave him unconscious in the hotel.

There are also a few instances where the film seems a little unbelievable. For example, the elephant somehow understands Polish, thus allowing Jacob to control her with his native language.

It’s a few unbelievable factors, combined with Pattinson taking a while to get into his movie role, that make the film far from flawless.

If there was one word to describe the film, though, it’d have to be “charming.” “Water for Elephants” is a very charming movie, and Witherspoon and Waltz do a great job in their roles. Pattinson even manages to do okay in his role after a while.

The ending of the film really adds more polish to it all.

The last scene of the movie, where the story comes back to the old man telling the tale to the younger circus worker, doesn’t detract from the movie or make it cheesy in its last moments.

Taking all the good and bad into account, “Water for Elephants” earns an 8/10. The film knows that it isn’t going to be a solid action or solid romance movie, so instead, it becomes a dazzling spectacle.

It’s an illusion of something greater than it really is, and that is what makes it the greatest show on earth, or at least the greatest show for that particular Friday.