At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

A great movie. A very touching scene, especially the last one in which Rose Rose rescues the life of Marlene. In these two hours you will have the opportunity to see suffering, anger, love. You will have the opportunity to see the pure madness of the owner of Circus Augustus, his inhuman behavior towards both humans and animals. In certain situations, tension will permeate the head of your being, and in other moments you will be relaxed.8,2/10

one of films who impress. for the ordinaries sparkles - costumes, recreation of the air of past, young actors and an animal who becomes axis of a story from the circus universe. for the joy of justice. and for a sweet, dramatic, impossible love story. but, more important, for the science to preserve the spirit of novel, recreate a world who becomes inspired mix of the childhood memories, cruel challenges of life and the meet who change everything. America in crisis has a seductive portrait in this film about a long travel to the happiness. sure, it is a good state to discover Robert Pattinson escaping from the cage of Twilight series and doing more than a decent job. but the star is Christoph Waltz who gives great nuances to his August. so, see it !

Casting choices for this film are up there with the worst of them. Main character cast for his fan-base of teenage girls and certainly not his acting ability which is cringe inducing during most scenes. Yes folks,Robert Pattinson is the offending 'actor' here playing Jacob Jankowsky, played at the start of the film by Hal Holbrook. The old Jacob who is around 95, is discovered by circus staff long after the end of the show in a parking lot having run away from his nursing home after hearing the circus was in town. On discovering the old man once worked for a historic circus, the manager asks him to tell his story, so queue the narrative and now it is 1931. Jacob is a student vet who is given the tragic news of his parents demise just 2 minutes into his final exam, a rather unbelievable point that is central to the story. Would they have been any less dead had they waited 118 more minutes later,at least letting him finish his degree?Anyway I digress. As they do not, having confirmed that his apparently well known parents were indeed his parents, dropped out of uni and discovered that his parents had financed his unfinished degree with a loan secured on all their assets thus leaving him with nothing, he decides to head for the city in search of work. He ends up jumping a train that happens to be a circus train where an alcoholic old workman with no authority at any other time in the film has the authority to stop the circus owner's evil henchman from throwing him off the moving train and later helps him get a job in the circus as it's vet. He spots the circus owner's wife Marlena, played by Reese Witherspoon who is (well meant to be) a stunningly beautiful and super talented performer, the star attraction of the entire show no less, for whom he develops an infatuation. Now I have nothing against the actress as such, however the director in casting her again got it horribly wrong again. She is far too old for the character she plays and is not especially beautiful nor a performer so she just looks plain wrong as Marlena and I see little point delaying saying that her performance is probably the worst acting from her that I have seen. Whether she was trying to match her costar I know not, but she is very wooden and completely devoid of personality; not even slightly believable. Waltz plays August, the ruthless and psychotic circus master. He seems to suit such personalities rather well and it's thanks to his performance that this film isn't a complete train- wreck. (Sorry! Couldn't resist) When Jacob discovers a horse essential to Marlena's star act has a terminal condition and shoots it, August aquires an elephant and promotes Jacob to it's keeper. Initially unaware how to control the creature, there are problems which cause drama, especially when August looses his rag and attacks the poor creature to the disgust of his wife and Jacob, in fact everybody. While mad at August, Marlena starts falling for Jacob and things develop between the two, however following the assault, Jacob discovers the elephant does in fact perform really well but takes Polish commands. Due to this, their affair goes flat for a while until August next goes evil. This occurs one night when he notices a look between J and M looks far from benign. He then comes close to possibly killing J although is prevented by one of his henchmen.The 2 then jump from the now moving train as it leaves town and flee to a hotel, where they finally sleep together. Barely finished, August's henchmen find them, grab Marlena and leave him a bloody mess. After they jumped off the train, an enraged August had his henchmen throw several workman off the moving train, killing two and engaging many more. The next show, some of the enraged folks sabotage the show causing chaos. In the resulting mayhem, August again tries killing Jacob, but Marlena stops him so instead he tries to kill her. This time he is stopped by the elephant,who also happens to kill him. J and M go off together, join a rival circus.. happily ever after.So a thoroughly believable story then, made all the more believable by 2 main characters, one by their inability to act, highlighted by their tendency for sudden cheesy grinning where their only other expression - pouting feels unsuitable to him; the other by seemingly not having her heart in it, perhaps she felt as out of place as she looked but couldn't turn down the fat pay cheque? If nothing else the film will serve as an indisputable example to others of both the result of terrible casting and how you can sadly still pull in the viewers on the strength of cast member's fan base regardless of the quality of the production. The few stars I gave were purely for the performance of the elephant and some of the other veterans involved and not at all the leading pair or director.

Rosie is one smart elephant. She understands Polish commands; not really commands, but gentle suggestions. She performs her 'answers' on cue. She is perfect. This is in sharp contrast to that brute, August, who beats her and stabs her with all the grace of a Neanderthal psycho ignoramus. Elephants never forget, so it is said, so Rosie eventually doles out her own intelligent solution upon the evil August.August is cruel to animals and people. He may physically abuse his wife. It looks that way, but I don't remember actually seeing it. She knows she has to do what he says. Meanwhile, he throws employees from the train because of budgetary problems. It is the Great Depression. I know from my own historical studies that circuses struggled financially in that time period. Some of these employees were killed upon impact with the ground or sharp rocks. August could not pay them their salaries, so he just dumped them.Robert Pattinson was wonderful as younger Jacob, and Hal Holbrook was excellent as his older self. Reese Witherspoon was perfect as Marlena. She had a very nice figure, IMO, to wear those lovely and skimpy circus costumes. August was a perfect villain.I love circus history. This was a very interesting movie.10/10