The movie was an uninspired remake of The Notebook. In a nutshell:
[ul][li]Twilight runs away to the circus after his parents die and the bank forecloses on the house.[/li]
[li]Twilight falls in love with the ringmaster's wife.[/li]
[li]The ringmaster is a jerk.[/li]
[li]Independently, the rest of the circus stages a disaster mid-performance, and the titular elephant kills the ringmaster with a stake to the head.[/li]
[li]Twilight and Witherspoon leave and live happily ever after.[/li]
[li]All this is told via flashback from an old man to a modern-day circus ringmaster.[/li][/ul]
Unlike Hayden Christensen, who's actually a decent actor but was fed crap from George Lucas, Twilight is legitimately a terrible actor. He has no facial expression, the stiffest body language, and this irritating whispered delivery. I bet he even smells like anti-bacterial cleanser. What I'm saying is you look at the guy, and there is to character to him.
Witherspoon was plainly a poor casting choice. She just wasn't fit for the role.
The ringmaster, Waltz, was excellent. He had a character. His character had ideas, expressions, moods, which the movie world seemed to revolve around. He is the gravity to which the circus orbits. And it is the actor that pulls this off - he is menacing, and intriguing, and an obvious leader. Waltz has charisma. Twilight does not.
But the movie is really about idealism versus realism. Twilight is the young, idealistic newcomer and the ringmaster is the veteran realist. He makes the tough decisions that no one likes, but it keeps the circus going. And like every other movie where this is the central theme, realism never gets to make its' case. The ringmaster is the obligatory villain and the movie takes cheap shortcuts to prejudice the audience against him:
[ul][li]He feeds the animals rotten food because there's no money, but he drinks champagne during prohibition.[/li]
[li]When payroll can't be made, he stiffs the crew and fires the least productive of them.[/li]
[li]He has a brute squad that throws the fired workers off the train, while it's moving.[/li]
[li]When it looks like the elephant won't work out as an act, he beats the animal bloody.[/li][/ul]
Every time the ringmaster has to be the bad guy, there's a solid reason behind the behavior, but then the movie has the character take it too far. There was plenty of fodder here for a romance-meets-"coming of age," as the college student learns love and hard work.
But that story isn't told. Instead, the only consequences that exist are the ones that happen to the ringmaster. Twilight, a veterinarian, doesn't think it's ethical to make a horse perform through it's injury, so he euthanizes it. It's up to the ringmaster to deal with the consequences of losing a valuable act, leading to the acquisition of the elephant.
Twilight is made responsible for the elephant's training. Twilight doesn't think it's ethical to use a cattle prod on it, so his training doesn't amount to anything. Come showtime, the elephant doesn't follow directions - so the ringmaster has to beat it into compliance. Then Twilight discovers that the elephant responds to commands in a foreign language, which he teaches to the ringmaster.
Those commands were probably initially taught to the elephant at the business end of a cattle prod - someone had to train the animal. And a 10,000 pound Indian bull isn't going to respond to a tugging from a leash.
So Twilight doesn't even solve the problem - the movie dumps a solution into his lap. The youthful, innocent idealist provides no solutions to the problems that plague the circus - and it falls to the sadistic realist to manage the situations as they come up.
Problems happen, complications naturally occur in something as complex as a circus. And Twilight doesn't do anything but make more problems. Yea the ringmaster is a bad guy, but only because the stupid movie makes him be one. His character didn't need to be as harsh as he was, and it was straining credulity that any of the talent would work for this guy.
And then by the end, the ringmaster's villainy catches up to him as his minions revolt and sabotage a live performance. And the moral of the story is that realism is bad because all the responsible people are also complete assholes.
This movie could have been so much better if they didn't make the hero so boring, the love interest so old, and the villain so much of a cartoon. I didn't read the book, so I don't even know if this was how it was supposed to be.
[ul][li]Twilight runs away to the circus after his parents die and the bank forecloses on the house.[/li]
[li]Twilight falls in love with the ringmaster's wife.[/li]
[li]The ringmaster is a jerk.[/li]
[li]Independently, the rest of the circus stages a disaster mid-performance, and the titular elephant kills the ringmaster with a stake to the head.[/li]
[li]Twilight and Witherspoon leave and live happily ever after.[/li]
[li]All this is told via flashback from an old man to a modern-day circus ringmaster.[/li][/ul]
Unlike Hayden Christensen, who's actually a decent actor but was fed crap from George Lucas, Twilight is legitimately a terrible actor. He has no facial expression, the stiffest body language, and this irritating whispered delivery. I bet he even smells like anti-bacterial cleanser. What I'm saying is you look at the guy, and there is to character to him.
Witherspoon was plainly a poor casting choice. She just wasn't fit for the role.
The ringmaster, Waltz, was excellent. He had a character. His character had ideas, expressions, moods, which the movie world seemed to revolve around. He is the gravity to which the circus orbits. And it is the actor that pulls this off - he is menacing, and intriguing, and an obvious leader. Waltz has charisma. Twilight does not.
But the movie is really about idealism versus realism. Twilight is the young, idealistic newcomer and the ringmaster is the veteran realist. He makes the tough decisions that no one likes, but it keeps the circus going. And like every other movie where this is the central theme, realism never gets to make its' case. The ringmaster is the obligatory villain and the movie takes cheap shortcuts to prejudice the audience against him:
[ul][li]He feeds the animals rotten food because there's no money, but he drinks champagne during prohibition.[/li]
[li]When payroll can't be made, he stiffs the crew and fires the least productive of them.[/li]
[li]He has a brute squad that throws the fired workers off the train, while it's moving.[/li]
[li]When it looks like the elephant won't work out as an act, he beats the animal bloody.[/li][/ul]
Every time the ringmaster has to be the bad guy, there's a solid reason behind the behavior, but then the movie has the character take it too far. There was plenty of fodder here for a romance-meets-"coming of age," as the college student learns love and hard work.
But that story isn't told. Instead, the only consequences that exist are the ones that happen to the ringmaster. Twilight, a veterinarian, doesn't think it's ethical to make a horse perform through it's injury, so he euthanizes it. It's up to the ringmaster to deal with the consequences of losing a valuable act, leading to the acquisition of the elephant.
Twilight is made responsible for the elephant's training. Twilight doesn't think it's ethical to use a cattle prod on it, so his training doesn't amount to anything. Come showtime, the elephant doesn't follow directions - so the ringmaster has to beat it into compliance. Then Twilight discovers that the elephant responds to commands in a foreign language, which he teaches to the ringmaster.
Those commands were probably initially taught to the elephant at the business end of a cattle prod - someone had to train the animal. And a 10,000 pound Indian bull isn't going to respond to a tugging from a leash.
So Twilight doesn't even solve the problem - the movie dumps a solution into his lap. The youthful, innocent idealist provides no solutions to the problems that plague the circus - and it falls to the sadistic realist to manage the situations as they come up.
Problems happen, complications naturally occur in something as complex as a circus. And Twilight doesn't do anything but make more problems. Yea the ringmaster is a bad guy, but only because the stupid movie makes him be one. His character didn't need to be as harsh as he was, and it was straining credulity that any of the talent would work for this guy.
And then by the end, the ringmaster's villainy catches up to him as his minions revolt and sabotage a live performance. And the moral of the story is that realism is bad because all the responsible people are also complete assholes.
This movie could have been so much better if they didn't make the hero so boring, the love interest so old, and the villain so much of a cartoon. I didn't read the book, so I don't even know if this was how it was supposed to be.
