52
Metascore
35 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsChicago TribuneMichael PhillipsLike "The Notebook," but with an elephant, the unexpectedly good film version of Water for Elephants elevates pure corn to a completely satisfying realm of romantic melodrama.
- 75Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallTampa Bay TimesSteve PersallReese Witherspoon can do a lot of things as an actor but playing a damaged-goods Depression era dame isn't one of them.
- 75Miami HeraldConnie OgleMiami HeraldConnie Ogle"Twilight's" Robert Pattinson gets a chance to shed his sparkly vampire persona and play a romantic lead with a pulse. The change suits him.
- 75Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyPhiladelphia InquirerCarrie RickeySteamy and sexy with a smack of sadism, the movie is a throwback to old-school Hollywood action/romance.
- 50Orlando SentinelRoger MooreOrlando SentinelRoger MooreWhatever romance and charm Gruen summoned forth from these rough and tumble show people living by their own laws in a traveling, self-contained world of poverty and cruelty, director Francis Lawrence has hacked and ground them off.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyWill please fans of Sara Gruen's best seller, but it lacks the vital spark that would have made the drama truly compelling on the screen.
- 50The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonThe A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonIt's a tastefully managed, passionless melodrama, full of brooding looks and reasonably sweet moments, but typified by a scantly characterized central couple who bring no sense of engagement to their relationship.
- 50Boston GlobeWesley MorrisBoston GlobeWesley MorrisThe camera, costumes, and art direction do everything right. Too much so. The movie strips away both the grand weirdness of the circus and the dire desolation of the Depression. Diane Arbus and Dorothea Lange are exchanged for Vanity Fair.
- 40Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzArizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAdd romantic chemistry to the list of things that fall flat in the film, alongside dialogue and acting.