Review: Water For Elephants

If you like beautiful, feel good movies, go see WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson, based on the 2006 novel by Sara Gruen.


The movie is eye candy, set against the backdrop of a traveling circus trying to not fold during the 1930. The vibrant colors of the circus tent and performers contrasting with the dirt and dust of the Great Depression.

The story is a flashback, told by an aged Jacob, played by Hal Holbrook. Pattinson takes over the narration and the world of the Great Depression open up in front of your eyes. . This is a movie you are glad you are in a dark room looking up at a gainormous screen.

The cinematography is beautiful, credit to the director- Francis Lawrence, who has directed more TV (KINGS) than movies, but he does have to his credit I AM LEGEND...

which did have a certain softness to it, now that I think about it....in an Armageddon sort of way.

The director of Photography for WATER FOR ELEPHANTS was Rodrigo Prieto whose English language films have included BROKE BACK MOUTAIN...

BABEL...

and one of this year's Telluride Film Festival showings starring Javier Bardem, BIUTIFUL.

Though most of these movies stories are somewhat on the gritty side- the cinematography is breathtaking, as it is for WATER FOR ELEPHANTS.

Reese Witherspoon, plays the beautiful center ring act of the small time circus and the wife of the sadistic and dangerous circus owner played successfully well by Christoph Waltz, ( INGLORIOUS BASTARDS).

Witherspoon certainly is part of the visually appealing backdrop. Her hair bleach blonde and perfectly coiffed in 1930 hair pin waves. Unfortunately, I can't say she added more to the performance though. I think she played it a little bit too stiff.

I can say Robert Pattinson did all he could do to separate himself from his vampire chilly reputation. He is spot on in his portrayal of Jacob, a gentle hearted veterinary student who joins the circus after his loving parents are killed in a car accident.


The forth main character has to be Rosie, the aged and Polish elephant, her rough, multi colored skin shown off so well with Prieto's photography, utilizing the cracks of light coming through train cars sliding door.

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS is a love story. I was certain it would end dark, seems to be the tone as of late. Not to give the ending away, but let's just say, I didn't walk out of the theater miffed.

Ohhhh, to run away to Hollywood and become a costume designer and make the costumes and dress the actors and actresses in a movie about a circus. In one of the scenes, Witherspoon sits in the dining tent and stitches away on a layered square of black fabric and in the next scene we find out it is to be an ornate beaded headpiece, part of her exquisite circus costume.

Everyone I have talked about this movie with has said the same thing, "You got to read the book!" I am sure the book is wonderful- it has to be to make such a fantastic movie. Most people seem to think the movie is never as good as the book. I, I confess, always seem to be the opposite. Novels, rarely hold my attention long enough to get through them, while I might watch a really good movie a dozen times over the years.

For me, a book rarely moves fast enough in its pacing and what is at stake seems to as at risk as it is in a two hour, 120 page script.

I came to this conclusion studying the few books I have read that have been made into movies.

Pride and Prejudice-

I apologize greatly to Miss Austin- whose many of her stories have been turned into movies and I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing , but Mr. Darcy, ( my favorite played by Matthew MacFadyen, across from Keira Knightley's Elizabeth), walking across a field in the morning sun, with the birds chirping and a full on orchestra playing to claim his love is more satisfying to me than having to read three pages of a proper chaperoned walk in the garden and an agreement at the top of a hill.

COLD MOUNTAIN...

Novel by Charles Frazie. The movie directed by Anthony Minghella and starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger,was also a highly successful and romantic novel turned into a successful movie. I saw the movie first, I know, backwards, but loved it so much, tried to read the book.

Got through the part of Enim, calmly describing what shrapnel he pulled out of neck wound including part of a peach pit. Again sorry- but I apparently need the excitement of the sound of blood gurgling from the wound and the sight of him dragging him back to the women he loves on Cold Mountain, watching him meet all the interesting people he does along the way.

Oh to think of the sounds of the singing in the church. I think that is it- I need the sights and sounds of a movie. The visual action and love scenes all accompanied by carefully orchestrated background music.

I think that is what it is for me- the sights and sounds a movie can offer. The chance to be engulfed in another time and place. To see the fabrics and decor of the civil war or a Depression era circus with my own eyes. Movie's are a story almost in 360 degrees- is not for that darn 4th wall and no one yet inventing "smell-o-vision"

I have so many stories in my head- that I debate writing as novels, for the sheer truth that the odds are slightly better to getting a screenplay sold which will make it to the big screen. Okay, the odds are a lot better.

But then I see a movie like WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, and I tell myself the odds don't matter- oh for the chance to run away to Hollywood to make magic.

The Adjustment Bureau: A Review

Went over the pass to Durango with my husband and Daughter #2 who were taking a hunter safety course, a tradition for 12 year old in our family. Went to the see THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU in the old Gaslight Movie Theater next to the train station. Spring had momentarily descend down on the San Juan mountains, so everyone was out.

The movie stars Matt Damon (Bourne Identity) and Emily Blunt ( Young Victoria). Damon is a up and coming politician who is suppose to be inspired by a free spirited dancer played by Blunt...

 but since a long term relationship between the two would have great ramifications on history- Damon's character headed for the White House- the Adjustment Bureau steps in.

The film obviously has Christian undertones of Predestination, but to be honest, though I enjoyed it, the stakes were not quite high enough, both for the two main characters and for well, the fate of mankind. How the politician would change, what new course he would be on if his life ran parallel with the dancer was never spelled out, if it had been something like a decision like the "Bay of Pigs", the stakes would have been higher- just taking the Adjustment Bureau's word for it, keep the meter of tension from rising too high.

Driving back over the pass that night, I was talking to Jon about it. He's a lawyer so leans towards a pragmatic outlook that our fate is only ruled by our decisions and not, well timing of when we spill coffee on our shirt and whether that allows us to get on the bus with our dream girl or not- a key plot point to the movie.

I asked him if he thought we would have had a life together if not for a ill fated Midnight 4x4 wheel drive trip in college where we got no less than five vehicles stuck in deep mud and where because I stuck it out through the night, digging with the guys, while the rest of the girls bailed and went home- I caught his eye.

Of course, Jon declared that if we weren't both there that night, we would of connected somehow else through college- but wouldn't that support the idea of an "adjustment" .

Free will or Predestination?

My take- a little of each- God knows our choices and decision before we make them but we are the one who makes them. Our path does get "adjusted" by chance or God intervening- and Timing is everything- in movies and real life!

The film I always go back to: Last of the Mohicans

Taking on The Kid in the Front Row movie blog's challenge of blogging about the movie we always seem to go back to when life is not treating us well, for me that would be THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS.

Not just the recent version in 1992 starring Daniel Day Lewis and Madeleine Stowe, but also the 1936 version...

 starring Randolph Scott...

having watched it in black and white as a kid when I would hole up on Saturday's and watch movie marathons- humm kind of doing that today- since Daughter #1 and Grandpa are horseback riding and Jon and Daughter #2 are mountain biking. I am still in my sweats and well, the dogs in the back yard are whining and will probably force me to get outside and enjoy the spring weather that at the moment has descended over the San Juan Mountains.

Last of the Mohicans is one of the premium classic American tales- set in 1757 during the battles between France and England to claim the frontier of what would be New York State, with all the local native tribes taking up alliance to try and save their claim to the land.

 I read James Fenimore Cooper's novel , 1826, back in school but have sense concluded it must of been an abridged version since picking up the original novel to read to my girls and seeing that it's a hard book to get through in its old English style and with a much more complicated story line.

The movie plots center around Hawkeye, a white man, but rescued as a small child by one of the last of the Mohican tribe, Chingachgook, who raises him with his own son- Uncas.

The three men help the daughters of the English General Munro get to Fort William Henry after an Indian attack lead by Magua, who is seeking revenge again Munro, who lead an attack that killed Magua's wife and children and sent him into slavery to the Hurons.

The rugged war torn setting of the story, upstate New York- in the 1992 film version was actually filmed in the Blue Ridge mountain of North Carolina brings such power to the story- the sheer rock mountains, rivers and waterfalls adding to the wildness of the story.

This is the classic boy meet girl story- my favorite. Hawkeye falling for the prim and poper, but brave older sister, Cora, played by Madeline Stowe....

 and Uncas loving and protecting to death the weaker younger sister Alice.

I think I love the rawness and simplicity of the Last of the Mohicans. For love, Hawkeye and Uncas changed their course- ( just reviewed the new Matt Damon movie The Adjustment Bureau), one to the point of death.

Does love concur all- yes! and thus why I love Boy Meets Girl stories- some of my other favorites-

AVATAR

JAMES BOND: CASINO ROYALE

COLD MOUNTAIN

GLADIATOR ( yes it is a love story)

and it doesn't matter if the outcome isn't always peachy.


THE CRAZIES...

 with Timothy Olphant happens to be on Stars Edge right now, didn't change  the channel in my Saturday movie marathon and though it is no less than a Zombie movie- it has a pretty sweet love story of Oplhant the local sheriff- going back into the Zombie infested town to rescue his wife...

 Almost free, they stop at a deserted truck stop where his wife's spirits fall and here is the great line that expresses that "love conquers all" that brings me back to movies again and again

DAVID

You want to give up...you want to sit here and die...tell me

and I will sit here and die with you.

David and Judy kiss passionately across  the truck stop resturant booth and table.

JUDY

You gonna go get that truck?

Next Year in Jerusalem

Recently I enjoyed watching FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, actually blasted Topel's rendition of if I Were a Rich Man through the Surround Sound, much to my children's complaining, which was responded to by me just turning it up loader!

"If I were a rich man, da, de, da ,de, da...."

What a great story- Set in 1905 Russia, Tevye giving us a tour of his little village Anatevka and its interesting characters, both the Jews living under the shadow of their Traditions, ( keep wanting to break out in song!) and their neighbors living under the rule of the Christian Orthodox church. Both exist under the regional military authority that eventually will expel the Jews from the only home they have known- Tevye has to sell his home and all his possessions and take his wife and last two daughter and join the exodus out of his homeland, Russia expelling all the Jews.

The village match maker, Yente, bids good bye to Tevya's wife, Golde, at her gate with the phrase, "Next year in Jerusalem," a hope the displaced Jewish people have had for a millennium.

EXODUS, my favorite Paul Newman movie, moves this desire forward fifty years, after the horrors of the Holocaust has solidified the desire for a homeland in the hearts of the survivors of the concentration camps.

The movie is no musical, but follows the attempt of the Jewish people to claim the lands of their forefathers for themselves. The World might of declared their right to it, but it was left up to them to claim it.

Paul Newman plays Ari Ben Canaan a Jewish rebel who had fought in World War 2 and now leads a complex plan to get a group of Jewish refugee to the promised land and help establish the first foothold of the new Israeli State.

Eva Marie Saint (North by Northwest) is an American nurse on holiday that gets entwined with the castaways and falling in love with Ari, comes to help establish the colony.

The politics of such a movie are too vast to explain here, nor do I have any delusion I understand them. Certainly the Arabs that occupied and still do occupy Israel deserve their own opinion of this era of history, but I think Exodus does a good job of giving them a voice in the character of Taha, the local mukhtar or leader and lifelong friend of Ari's.

The movie was made in 1960 less then fifteen years from the events that established the State of Israel. Interestingly the film also has the notoriety of helping break the era of the Hollywood Blacklist when Dalton Trumbo, a confirmed Communist and one of the famous Hollywood 10- who refused to testify before the government and reveal others working in Hollywood with ties to the Communist party.

Interestingly- Trumbo is most well known for his anti -war novel JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN...

that I and my daughters read in Middle School- about a maimed and quad amputee soldier who screams out from the shell of a body, trying to communicate with the world.

What is doubly interesting and quite the co -inky-dink is I started writing this in Boulder, Colorado...

 in the Starbucks just north of the University of Colorado campus, while Daughter #1 toured the campus with her father, and low and behold- Trumbo graduated from CU- and, get this grew up in Montrose- Colorado- en route- to Boulder from our corner of the State- how small is the world and interlinked is that- a blacklisted Communist would write such a powerful screenplay about establishing the Jewish State and have written the anti war book most schools have their students read and I remember so vividly and be linked to Colorado- well it is University of Colorado in Boulder- that is known as quite a liberal school- doubt that has changed much in 60 years.

-Relied heavily on Wikipedia's page on the movies and the accompanying links.
-Both movies are available on Netflix

Avatar: The power of Editing

I loved the Avatar Theater release . I thought it was a perfect screenplay, in structure. It was the classic "Stanger comes to town" - or planet- story. Jake Sully, the main character, had a perfect character arc, emotionally and literally transformed from a wheel chair bound ex marine with "Born Loser" tattooed on his arm in the beginning to becoming the leader and savior of an entire race of people fighting an oppressive foe.

I have a thing for "going Native" stories- like THE LAST SAMARI starring Tom Cruise and DANCES WITH WOLVES, starring Kevin Costner, but Avatar, even apart from the high and new technology, was a well balanced structured story.

Then I got the deluxe DVD which had all that extra stuff - all the how it was made, deleted scenes and Director's cut and I think the story of AVATAR entirely changed, maybe the studios can give us "behind the scene" junkies too much information.

More often than not, Director cut's just illustrate why certain scenes do not have to be in the final movie. Overall time, not moving the story forward and repetitive information might be the main reasons why scenes end up on the cutting room floor, but reality is that film is, unlike novels, "an economy of words and images"- less is definitely more- more for the imagination and in film that is a good thing.

But I have never watched a Director's Cut that more drastically changed the whole flavor of a movie, in my opinion even the character's motivations, as James Cameron's Director's Cut of AVATAR.


The Director's cut, starts way back on planet Earth, an Earth not recognizable. A filthy city, "with no green" and mixes of East and West cultures, where people cannot breath and have to wear masks. There is too much information and I think it pushed AVATAR into pure Sci Fi, where a person could watch it guilt free, never thinking about what we are doing to our planet, cause we are no way near the Earth they depicted.

Jake being a "born loser" is played out on the screen, with nothing left up to the imagination. he is drunk in a bar, full of self loathing, but tries to save a girl and is thrown into an alley, wheelchair and all, where the agents find him and take him to see his dead brother.

I think just knowing Jake dreamed of flying while in the VA Hospital paralyzed , that his brother was killed for the money in his wallet and Jake could take his place on Pandora and had to watch his brother cremated in a cardboard box really is all the back story we need and keeps that "Stanger comes to Town," mystic. Truth is if we don't know so much about a character's background, we can more see ourselves in them and are that much more pulled in.

Much of the First Act that did get cut for the Theater release and then put back in for the Director's Cut, was explanation of back story - Neytiri's older sister being killed at Dr. Augustine's school and relationships- there was quite a hot and heavy thing between Norm and Trudy in the modular while they were waiting around with nothing to do. Might be interesting, but these extra tidbits can bog the story down. To quote the writers from another well packed DVD Extra Behind the Scenes multi-disc set- One must always "follow the Ring"

The biggest difference in the two version, I think is that Jake from the Director's cut, with all that back story, felt different than the Jake I had emotionally attached myself to in the movie theater- oh my- could that be taken wrong! I mean it felt like his motivations weren't quite right, where when I didn't have the knowledge of his back story- it didn't matter, I filled things in myself. It was kind of like reading a novel and creating the character in your head and then being sorely disappointed in the movie version of that said character, they never stand up do they?

For example there apparently was a rather involved scene of Jake's Vision Quest, before he was welcomed by the People, helped along the way by a biting scorpion-ish creature- where his connection to the Toruk is reveled for him- I like that I didn't know that when he dive bombed from his perch onto the great creature.

The only scene, I thought would of fit into the original version and was curious about was how Avatars make love, wondered if Cameron had to leave it out to keep the PG rating- would love to of heard that conversation behind the closed doors of the Ratings Board- about the nuisances of intertwined....well check out the new DVD set.

In ACT Three an even more disturbing revel in the Directors Cut is Cameron's exploration of mercy killing- apparently the fall from the bomber did not kill Tsu'tey and part of the passing from one leader to the other was for Jake to mercy kill "his brother."

I would of just thought that was an unnecessary and somewhat disturbing addition into an otherwise good story if not for the fact that earlier this year I humored my husband and went to see SANTUM, produced by Cameron.

The movie is set against a tropical wilderness that looks like the beginning reference footage for the animators of Avatar and is about stupid divers exploring an unmapped cave system, putting themselves in peril and with I think no less than three mercy killings- That would be four mercy killings for Cameron in a given year- hummmm? One can only help wondering- does he have an agenda- or being the hard realist that I think he is- was he tired of unrealistic, romantic ends in the wilderness and had something to say about that. Do I doubt what has been done on the side of Mt.Everest or deep in the Amazon when there is NO Search and Rescue nearby to end a companions suffering- No. Do I think we need to explore it in film like that- No.

Back to DVD set, the mock ups, rough animations included like the Vision Quest were interesting, including one at the end, that hinted at a baby Sully on the way. I love all that stuff, along with the more nuts and bolts of exactly how it was made. The costume and prop section was fascinating the detail they made the jewelry and weapons to be able to scan them and create them on a computer so realistically.

But I got to say if the theater version had been like the Director's cut- AVATAR would of been a different movie. Pushed farther to the Left, it would have alienated more people- wisely Cameron decided to keep the movie focused on One agenda- Global Warming- and leave out Mercy Killings and well how blue babies are exactly made.

1976: The Start of Hollywood Blockbusters

I watched MORNING GLORY the other day. It stars Rachel McAdams as a young producer of a network morning news show who has to try and cage a iconic newsman, Harrison Ford, who thought he would be sailing through the rest of his contract.


The movie was okay for a weekend rental, but it was no DEVIL WEARS PRADA,

 a similar- assistant to a monster of a boss coming of age story starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. There was not enough "at risk" , everyone kind of just did their "thing" and there was not enough build up of a crisis in my humble opinion, but that is not really what this post is about is how OLD, Harrison Ford looked, Mr. Ford if you are reading this I do apologies.

But this weekend, I was also enjoying reading about every page of Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue.

If you don't subscribe to it, I highly recomand getting it at the newstand. It has a great article on a ritzy trailer park in Malibu called Paradise Cove, an interesting article on Lauren Becall and a lot of pre Oscar coverage.

It also has a very interesting article on the making of ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN,

starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman- I really am getting to Harrison Ford, promise. I won't paraphrase the article in Vanity Fair-it is worth a read, but one interesting thing it pointed out was that era when ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, 1975-1977 also saw JAWS

considered to be the first blockbuster movie with a wide release followed by ALL THE PRESIDNET'S MEN, followed the next year by.. here is Harrison Ford, STAR WARS.

I was nine years old when riding on my bike to the Orchard Shopping center, I saw the title STAR WARS on the marquee and remember thinking to myself, "What does that mean, how do stars fight?"

The year before was the Bicentennial and Washington was just settling down from the scandal of Watergate, Woodward and Bernstein's book just out as was Redford and Hoffman's movie,

well being nine I didn't pay much attention to all that but was in Washington DC that summer for the July 4th festivities, because my father was doing his two year Forest Service stint in Washington.

We did the Smithsonian, many, many civil war battle fields, saw the Capitol and of course the fireworks were pretty amazing. I skipped around the nation's capitol with no concern or any memory of having the knowledge that a scandal just a little while before had rocked Washington to its core.

And because my dad lived back to back with a Secret Service agent, one night, riding in his Porsche, don't know if that is a favored car of the Secret Service, we got to go literally snoop around the White House. President Ford was out for the night at the theater I think, but we got to wander the halls, see the dishes in the china room, cant' remember which one, and even walk into the Oval Office and run around the circle rug, I think the tours at the time only got to look in the Oval Office. At the time, I thought the bathrooms were the coolest, with real towels instead of paper towels and the bathroom had two doors and I went out the wrong one and found myself in a long corridor with no one around, I wasn't brave enough to keep going and rushed back through to find everyone else.

Ohhh, what you don't worry about when you are nine. Nation's can fall and as long as there is things to entertain you, you are happy and oblivious and your heroes, like Han Solo don't grow old.......

 oh yeah they do!

Possession: Disturbing the Past

I watched POSSESSION this morning. It stars Aaron Eckhart (ERIN BROCKOVICH and BATTLE: LOS ANGELES) as an American research assistant in London, who stumbles across an unsent romantic letter from one of the country's most beloved Victorian poets who has been known as a faithful husband to his ailing wife.


Since the object of his desire appears to be another famous femininist poet who has been known as swearing off men all together- such a find appears monumental but needs more documentation to be taken seriously, so Eckhart enlists Gwyneth Paltrow , ( SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE and COUNTRY STRONG), a professor at the university which holds the letters and diaries of said feminist poet.

While Paltrow and Eckhart retrace the poets affair through research archives, ancestral homes and sea side retreats, the story if played out in flashbacks on the screen, with Randolph Henry Ash played by Jeremy Northam, (TUDORS and THE NET) and his love interest Christabel LaMotte played by Jennifer Ehle ( PBS's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE). Of course a modern day romance is ignited by Eckhart and Paltrow and there are twist and turns to the scholarly adventure.

I have always had "a thing" for the stories of old, so loved this movie, piecing together the truth of the past with diaries and letters and notes scribbled on bits of paper, archived in dusty basements. The sophisticated stories of England past, even if made up, always intrigues me but even here in the deep West of the US, there are truths to discover and I have the privilege of being surrounded by several research libraries, that I absolutely love to frequent.

The key to good research is to make friends with the research archivist who will take you down in the basements where all the good stuff is. Last year I spent a few hours in the basement of the Anasazi Heritage Center in SW Colorado that houses the archives of the Wetherill Family, the cowboy/archeologist that brought the discovery of the ruins of Mesa Verde to the world and secondary characters in a screenplay I wrote for the Nicholl Fellowship contest last year.

I have to say it is surreal and feels a little voyeristic to be rooting through other people's ( even if long dead) possessions. Sitting there, holding ledger books and photo albums, deciphering scribble notes I also felt like I could feel them, the brothers, and their scientific partner, Gustaf Nordenskiold, who after the summer of 1891 excavating the ruins together and doing the first scientific documentations of Mesa Verde, sent the brother a photo album of his snap shots which I now held in my hands.

I also often feel like I am intruding. I wonder if they would want me snooping. The fact that the Wetherill decedents dusted all of the brother's papers with paprika to ward of insects, which was now stinging my eyes and making me sneeze could be taken as retaliation.

Ironically, the Wetherill and Nordenskiold also were intruding on the ghost of the past, when they excavated the ruins, which were far from the pristine state they are now, sometimes the cowboys were digging through five feet of dirt to get to the floor and at times literally breathing in the dust of the mummies they were finding sealed in the deep alcoves of Mesa Verde.

Do these feeling stop me, I confess, no. Do I feel a great responsibility in including real people and events in my writing, yes. Do I say a little prayer, hoping I will remain true to who they truly were as people, most definitely, yes.