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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: If basking in the simulacrum of [Pattinson's] need-filled gaze is your bag, then by all means... Read more
Stephen Holden, New York Times: Short-circuits the novel's quirky charms and period atmosphere by its squeamish attitude toward gritty circus life and smothers the drama under James Newton Howard's insufferable wall-to-wall musical soup. Read more
Logan Hill, New York Magazine/Vulture: "Pattinson's beauty crowds out just about everything else." Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: How do I count the ways this movie goes wrong? Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Well, it isn't the elephant's fault. Read more
Tasha Robinson, AV Club: It'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. Read more
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Add romantic chemistry to the list of things that fall flat in the film, alongside dialogue and acting. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: 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. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Like "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. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The film has a pleasing retro-ness that often mitigates the dullness. Read more
Joy Tipping, Dallas Morning News: Can the film live up to Sara Gruen's best-selling novel, an adored word-of-mouth phenomenon? [Yes.] Read more
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Water For Elephants is not, to borrow the Benzini Bros. Circus' motto -- "the most spectacular show on Earth." But it is a class act. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: Witherspoon sparkles appropriately, Waltz is indeed one scary dude and Pattinson acquits himself well enough, although he leans too much on grinning as a default reaction. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: From scene to scene, and plot point to plot point, nothing connects. Pattinson, Witherspoon, and Waltz perform in separate rings of their three-ring circus. Read more
Christine Champ, Film.com: Water for Elephants may not be the best show on earth, but it's still quite a show. Read more
David Germain, Associated Press: Witherspoon and Pattinson are a three-ring snooze-fest together, bringing little passion to a love story supposedly so fiery, it blows the roof off the big top. Read more
Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Will 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. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: There is quite a bit to enjoy in a film that certainly qualifies as broad-based popular entertainment. Read more
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Water for Elephants deftly captures the romantic idea of running away to join the circus and the uglier details of what that life entailed in 1931. Read more
David Denby, New Yorker: The movie rather embarrassingly sells chastity in the midst of what feels like a lawless situation. It's handsomely mounted but timid. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: "Water for Elephants" is one ring short of a three-ring hit. Read more
Ella Taylor, NPR: Witherspoon makes an incongruously squeaky Marlena, and it doesn't help that Pattinson is about as ardently expressive as a log of wood trying to pass itself off as James Dean. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Director Francis Lawrence and writer Richard LaGravenese replicate just enough of the novel's fantasy to keep audiences involved, even if the results hardly add up to the most spectacular show at the cineplex. Read more
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Usually, you have to wait for the end-of-the-year awards season to see an elaborate period piece that fails as spectacularly as "Water for Elephants." Read more
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: What with its big, lush close-ups of the principals, Rodrigo Prieto's moody, humidor-brown cinematography, and the life-is-a-circus emotionalism, Water provides the basic movie-movie pleasure of beautiful people struggling their way out of ugly situations Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The great intangible of chemistry isn't present, making Water for Elephants seem longer and slower than one might hope. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: In an age of prefabricated special effects and obviously phony spectacle, it's sort of old-fashioned (and a pleasure) to see a movie made of real people and plausible sets. Read more
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Even nonreaders of the book can figure out what happens next. It's all in the telling. Sara Gruen provided grit and pungent detail. The movie settles for gloss. Read more
Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon.com: The problem isn't just miscasting or the cheesiness of the material. It's Pattinson's increasingly predictable, dour persona. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "Water for Elephants" is a circus tale, full of drunks, tossed-off circus wisdom and forlorn animals, including a beautiful elephant. Read more
Dana Stevens, Slate: Isn't it OK, once in a while, just to enjoy the spectacle of two beautiful people kissing in a train car in the shadow of an elephant? Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Water for Elephants" balances the colorful glitz of a three-ring spectacle with the atmospheric realism that a rich drama demands. Read more
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: As usual, Pattinson's acting consists of shaking his head and whimpering. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Does the sheer Hollywood hoopla add up to a perversely enjoyable brand of something that can be loosely called entertainment? I think it does. Read more
Leah Rozen, TheWrap: Supporting characters are too hastily sketched in, serving only to further the unsmooth course of true love. Read more
Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: I'd be pleased to see a vibrantly romantic picture defy the Zeitgeist and restore one of Hollywood's central genres. This just isn't the movie to do it. Read more
Dave Calhoun, Time Out: 'Water for Elephants' has charm, and this more grown up role suits Pattinson more than the histrionics of last year's 'Remember Me'. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: [Witherspoon and Pattinson] are game, but the pulse between them approaches Dracula's resting heart rate. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: The script by Richard LaGravenese, who is well-versed in adapting popular fiction such as Bridges of Madison County, lacks the sparkle of his best work. Read more
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: You know where the thing is headed. Still, it's fun to watch. Read more