Read this book! I read this near the end of last year and fell completely in love with it. It is full of suspense, compassion, humor, and life.
Sara Gruen's characters are well-developed and we can sympathize with each of them in one way or another. Jacob, our protagonist, has a heart of gold - though he continually gets himself into trouble, he does whatever it takes to do what is right, be it for other people or animals. August, though totally batshit, we can understand his jealousy and fear, and his desire to do anything to hold on to his wife. Some of what helps us feel sympathetic to this character is that he screams mental illness. Though I took some issue with Marlena - Jacob's love interest, August's wife, spectacle star - I attribute most of what I didn't like about her to the status of women in the time period. All the peripheral characters are there with purpose, and the more significant ones - Walter/Kinko, Camel, Rosie - are also completely sympathetic despite their flaws.
Gruen - through what I assume takes a ton of research - also brings a depression-era world to life. Beyond her descriptions of cramped and grimy living conditions on a rail car, and liveliness of all corners of the circus - the sideshow, cooch tent, menagerie, and more - the novel is peppered with authentic circus pictures. Not only do we get some of the behind-the-scenes of traveling circus life, we are also exposed to the conditions created by prohibition - Camel's 'jake leg', speakeasy raids, etc. The huge gap between social classes of the era is so apparent - when August hosts intimate but fancy engagements in his train car, while other workers are being 'red lighted' (thrown off the train, often in the middle of the night while it is moving) for no legitimate reason aside from not being the most valuable and therefore not having money to pay them, I couldn't help but get angry!
The storytelling itself is fully engaging. We are thrown back and forth between Jacob's current life in the retirement home and his memories of life with the Benzini Brothers. He is both a hilarious and disgruntled old man - he gets into fights with his pairs, is immovably stubborn and really only seems to want human connection, and maybe his livelihood back. We get snippets of the real meat of the story from the beginning of the book (make sure you read the prologue, this isn't high school english!), which resides back of mind until it is revisited in context. The tension builds with momentum throughout the story, where we almost get lost in all of it until we are grounded back in Jacob's current reality at the nursing home. There's just so much passion and momentum in here!
So, again, read this book!
The movie, however... not to be harsh, but I wouldn't call it a "must see" by any stretch. I didn't dislike it by any means, but it was lacking a lot. It was fairly true to the story, with the exception of some characters, which is great, but there was also simply no element of suspense. Perhaps if I hadn't read the book, it would have been more exciting. Knowing what was going to happen (although obviously a huge part) was not the only reason for the lack of suspense - some more creative cinematography could have been used to achieve some of this. I was disappointed that all of the nursing home scenes had been left out - that stuff was FUNNY! Maybe with this, some of the tension that was missing could have built.
The characters didn't have nearly enough depth to gain my sympathy, except for maybe Jacob. I did however find myself filling in what I could recall from the novel, so I'm not even sure if he was developed enough. They combined August and Uncle Al into one character - totally fine, because Al was peripheral enough for it to not make much of a difference. Walter and Camel were both under- and over- developed in the film. They do play a significant role in the novel, but their roles are certainly less defined in the movie. Camel's 'Jake Leg' seems totally out of place and comes with a one line explanation from Walter. We also don't have the opportunity to really understand Jacob's sympathy on any level for him and we don't get to see what lengths Jacob is willing to go for others. The relationship between Jacob and Walter is just diluted. It is hard to fit a novel neatly into a two hour length film, but there has to be a better way. They should have either left more out and went with the information that was there or taken the time and measures to accurately convey these relationships.
Despite the lack of character development, the acting was great! I have never actually seen Robert Pattinson in anything else, but I was under the impression he was just a 'pretty boy' without much talent - he was a wonderful Jacob. I wish they had kept the old man as the narrative voice, but I got used to the younger one after a while. I find often that younger actors have trouble looking like they belong in older settings, but he fit in fine. Reese Witherspoon - wow, she is starting to look old! Marlena is sort of a helpless girlish (but woman) character, and I thought the performance was good. She was able to command respect and attention when needed and played the helpless woman role well. Though in the novel she is older than Jacob, as is with the actors here, something about their relationship/chemistry was a little off. The force of love that comes through in the novel was just not there. Christoph Waltz is just so good at playing an ass (hmm...I wonder what he's like in real life). He plays crazy and controlling and flips to being Mr. Nice Guy - if the character were better written in the movie, this would have been so powerful!
This movie was really beautiful. There was dramatic lighting, picturesque landscapes, and majestic animals. Some scenes were filled with people buzzing with movement and action, while others were very quiet and calm. I really really really LOVED some of the costumes. I want clothes for riding elephants! The make up on the circus characters was loud and lovely. The clown outfits and August's ringmaster outfit are just the way you would imagine.
This movie wasn't bad, I just really wanted more from it. It's worth renting, and definitely worth watching if you don't want to read the book (but the book is way better)!
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