Water for Elephants

In 1931 at the bottom of the Great Depression, a veterinary student (Robert Pattinson) has to leave college and take a job with a fleabag circus, where he is smitten by the bareback rider (Reese Witherspoon) and menaced by her mentally unstable husband (Christoph Waltz), who owns the show. Sara Gruen’s wonderful novel gets a screen treatment just faithful enough to completely ruin the book for anyone who hasn’t read it. Richard LaGravenese’s script covers (barely) the basic story but bobbles its depth and texture, eliminating key characters and plot points and spoiling the book’s surprises. Slack direction by Francis Lawrence and the usual dull performance by Pattinson take care of the rest. As Pattinson’s elderly modern-day self, Hal Holbrook is shamefully wasted, as is the old man’s part of the story.