In the film adaptation of Sara Gruen’s book-club favorite Water for Elephants, Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson spend a lot of time rubbing up against elephants, and a little bit of time rubbing up against each other. The fictional story of the “greatest circus disaster of all time,†it’s framed as a cozy flashback (think League of Their Own, Titanic, Fried Green Tomatoes), with an old timer remembering to way back when he looked like Robert Pattinson and was the new guy at the circus. In those days, he fell in love with the beautiful lady (Witherspoon) who did the surprisingly sensual elephant act (seriously, check Reese laying out on Dumbo), and the two of them stroked elephant trunks (not euphemistically!) while avoiding her mean, horrible ringmaster boyfriend (Christoph Waltz). Based on the evidence, it’s hard to tell if this is the movie that will prove Pattinson can act when not playing Edward Cullen, or if he and Witherspoon have any chemistry. (We’re dubious: Witherspoon’s persona is nothing if not adult. She seems like she’d be way too grown for him if they were the same age, and she’s actually a decade older.) Certainly, though, this will be the movie that attempts to make elephants sexy.
