Water For Elephants

Water For Elephants by Richard LaGravanse.

I love Mr. R. G. He was born 15 days before me. We're both Scorpios of 1959, and every movie and adaptation of his that I've seen I've loved. So maybe I was being a total queer for wanting to love this movie, but it's only because I've wanted to be fucked by R.LG for just about ever.

This movie got really bad reviews which I didn't know because I had no intention of spoiling my experience with reviews or movie vs. book comparisons. The first time I saw it, I thought it was spellbinding and sort of gorgeous. The second time I saw it, I had a lump in my throat that I thought was going to come out in the form of tears, but I was with someone, so I swallowed it down. I finally read the reviews after the third time I saw this and I have still not read the book, but I thought for a movie to convey what it was able to convey (movies can never completely capture a book, so to compare them is not really fair, IMHO), it deserved way better reviews than it got. You get the sense of what it must have been like for "entertainment" to come to town, (the circus); you understand how frustrating it must have been to be a struggling Ringling Bros. competitor (Cirque du soleil and the Big Apple Circus are the only remaining ones.) And what you really get a great sense of is the absolute desperation and poverty that these people (1931-1936) lived in. There was no one to take care of them. If they failed at their job they were thrown off the train. The beautiful GORGEOUS Reese Witherspoon is absolutely willing to give up her fantasy relationship with the Vampire guy. And he is too. (Robert Pattinson). The romance doesn't actually resolve itself until the last frames of the movie, which is a brilliant move, in my opinion, kind of like finding out what Rosebud means at the end of Citizen Kane. Oh and the elephant is one of the most extraordinary characters ever. I loved this movie from start to finish, and I love Richard LaGravanese. Living Out Loud. The Fisher King. and other great movies. He is a great writer.