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Loading ...After his 71-year-old son forgets to show up, an elderly Jacob Jankowski (Hal Holbrook), decides to see the circus alone. While there he is found by two circus workers, who insist on helping him. Jacob mentions that he was part of the Benzini Circus in 1931 and one of the workers is intrigued, having heard that the Benzini Circus failed after a terrible disaster. He asks Jacob for details of that disaster, and so Jacob begins to tell his story.
Flashback to the prohibition era, during the Great Depression, 1931, where a 23-year-old Polish American Jacob (Robert Pattinson) is a Cornell student. While taking his final exam, he is informed that his parents have been killed in a car crash. His father has left huge debts, and the bank forecloses on Jacob’s home. Feeling that there is no point in returning to school, and having no home, he jumps onto a passing train where he meets Camel (Jim Norton), who promises him a job and tells him to get some sleep.
In the morning, Jacob discovers that he jumped on the Benzini Brothers Circus train, and while watching the train unload, he sees a beautiful woman, Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), performing with her horses. Jacob does odd jobs all day and that evening is summoned to meet August (Christoph Waltz), the circus owner, the head animal trainer, and Marlena’s husband. August orders him thrown off the train, but Jacob reveals that he studied veterinary science at Cornell and has noticed a problem with Silver, the starring horse of the show. August agrees to hire him as a vet for the circus animals.
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