大象的眼泪（粤语版）

某一個休假的日子，因為無戲可看就選了這部片子打發時間，可是非常悲劇的是，這片子的劇情從一開始就毫無懸念，好像教科書式的平鋪直敘，難怪影評中有人要求退還票錢。

劇情的中規中矩是本戲的重大硬傷，如果說十幾年前的觀眾可能對馬戲團的獅子大象還充滿新奇，那麼現在的觀眾早就不會為這些景象而震撼了。人與動物的感情，男女主角的愛情也毫無特別之處，甚至是有不少漏洞的，於是基本沒有一處是叫人看得感動的。此刻加上偏偏男女主角演技也平平，吸血鬼的氣質完全沒有改變，依舊是喜怒哀樂一個表情。實在是很難忍耐的一個多小時，甚至光聽老者講故事也許還有趣過看影片本身，憑感覺也應該是小說本身更有看頭。

固然因為時限，電影只能在兩小時內說完一個人的人生，但是刪減的雖多，卻不應該使得感情也被刪節。記得以前拍片有人給我意見，說電影的魅力就在於觀眾一直感覺有事要發生但是卻一直沒有發生，通過各種技巧吊住觀眾的胃口，那麼到最後大家才會覺得這個故事有趣。當然這個看法也不儘然，但是如果再一開始就讓人猜到了大致走向和結局，那麼即使畫面再華麗觀眾依然會在電影院昏昏欲睡。

故事本事好故事，只可惜講故事的方式太過老套，使得本來該有的觸動人心都成了枯燥無味。

http://ucinema.hk/filmreviewmollyzheng19.htm

可能是对电影期待过高，这真是一部不怎么样的电影。电影讲述了一个年轻人父母意外身亡，家庭破产意外登上了一个马戏团的火车，并爱上了马戏团班主的老婆。说是励志电影看不到励志的地方，说是爱情片男女猪脚的爱情烘托太少，没看出有多爱。此电影只是用好莱坞的叙事方法讲述了一个平淡无趣的故事。它让我想起了电影大鱼，此电影完全没有大鱼的精彩情节和感人故事，麻烦要临摹你也努点力。

距离看完小说到这部电影竟然过去两年时间了...不由得我不感慨一句 @#%&*# 啊！！
根据我尚存于记忆中的残念，改编后的电影和小说基本一致（就是没有突破的意思啦），好像比较符合我当初看书时脑子里所想的画面，也算是给了我一个比较完整的交待。
关于选角，比较满意，唯一想吐槽的就是 Reese...这年龄，这身段，唉，实在有点对不上号

Tony promised a surprise to me if I was able to apply for 20 new jobs within two days. While I failed to hit the goal at the end of the day, with the submission of only 15 new jobs, my sweet Mr. Hairball decided to deliver the surprise as he was convinced that I have been making a real effort in order to accomplish that difficult task.

The prize came out to be a beautiful movie called "Water for Elephants" at Scotiabank Theater, starred by Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz. It was not among the movies that could give you an easy and amusing time on a Sunday night, but belonged to the category of movies that would truly help you think and feel. The story was about a veterinary student, Jacob, abandoned his studies after his parents were killed and joined a traveling circus as their vet. There he met the girl of his dream, Marlena, who was also the wife of his boss August. They fell in love while taking care of the new star attraction of the circus: a smart baby elephant. With overwhelming love for each other and inconceivable courage toward better future, they were able to defeat the brutality of August and the cruelty of the times.

I think the movie has chosen a very good perspective to tell the story, for the reason that a circus is always a place full of ironies. It supposed to be a place that brings out the most amounts of true joys, but it was actually with tremendous hardship and tragedies underneath. It looks like a place full of intra-species love and communication, but it was actually dominated by wildness and manipulations. After all, a circus show was just another lucrative delusion of joys, a typical bloody business as many of the others in the historical period of Mid-20-century America. While Jacob, on the other hand, who served as a representative of the scarcely existed humanities during that era, has made every effort to struggle for true love and true cares. The reward for him was a girl of his dream and an immortal life story to be shared with his deeply touched audience.

I was very happy to find Tony loved the movie all the same, although I am pretty sure that he could have some unshared feelings about it from a different angle due to his previous experiences. For that, I would like to respect and protect. “What if there was a happy ending for our past tragedies?” This is always a sentimental and magical question to think about. The singularity of the chance to live and the unrepeatableness of time have left us with a limited extent of choices as well as a great legacy of many unfinished yet unable-to-be-finished stories. In my eyes, it never harms to let the stories and pities finished with the help of movies and imagine for the moment about other possibilities of our own lives.

And I have my unleashed thoughts too. “Where were you when I was seventeen?”When Marlena asked Jacob, helplessly yet hopefully, at that dancing party, I could clearly remember similar words coming out of my own mouth in the far-away past. The answer to that question was nothing about where were you exactly when I was seventeen; it was everything about what I am going to do with my already changed demand and feelings for life now. However, a big problem in the real world about that is: the true courage in striving for better future could be looking very similar to the ungrateful boldness to screw up a pretty good life. People need wisdom to tell the difference between the two, otherwise there could be a costly price to pay for simply being romantic. For example, in the movie I totally understood Jacob’s affections for Marlena and I completely caught Marlena’s internal unsatisfaction in her marriage with August, yet I pretty doubt about how would Marlena immediately feel after August’s death. August was her husband. He was the right person for her to meet when she was seventeen. He was a super evil for everyone else in the world except for her. As an audience, I feel delighted for Marlena and Jacob’s living happily ever after. But did August deserve such an applauded betrayal and demise as that?

Love is truly beautiful, but love is also selfish. There is hardly right-or-wrong answer in any love story. It is touchy as long as it is real. - Once again ironically, these words came from someone who was somehow hurt by the love story that I am enjoying right now. I am always trying to feel, what exactly did Jacob see in that 1939 picture of the Winnie Brothers’ Circus Show at the very beginning of the movie? Cherished memory of his passed wife, grateful appreciation toward his own life, mixed feelings for his long-dead friend and enemy August? Despite all the complexity and ambiguity in his feelings, interestingly, that feeling reaches the bottom of our hearts and became something that we are all yearning for at the end of the day. When Tony and I, hand-in-hand, came off as the last two persons who walked out of the cinema that night, I could not help thinking about one simple question: if there is ever any audience for our own life, would they enjoy the show as much as we just did?

Jessica
May 16 2011