The more disturbing and not always resolvable black, meanwhile, has disappeared, hidden away behind good sentiments and timidity. Based on the non-fiction book by Diane Ackerman ('A Natural. In Caro’s film, grey areas are simplified into, mostly, white. A husband and wife in Nazi-occupied Poland use their position as caretakers at the Warsaw Zoo to shepherd Jews out of the country. Antonina’s moral and sentimental torment is too schematic and superficial. That is, until the film, in a strangely violent climactic confrontation, brutally shuts down any dilemma more emotional and personal than the one imposed on them by her resistance work. As the actor mixes his youthful amiability with a palpable weakness, Lutz first appears as a real threat, more to the couple’s marriage than to their secret operations, as an attraction between him and Antonina feels genuine. Antonina’s consoling words about loneliness, however, seem strangely out of line, and Haas’ well of complex emotions – channeled through a brief but great performance – remains untapped.Īware that furry beasts juxtaposed with persecuted people may not make for a shocking-enough discrepancy, Caro is careful to linger on Lutz Heck, the animal-loving Nazi officer entering in to the Zabinskis’ lives and played with always-welcomed subtlety by go-to German character actor Daniel Brühl. Hope for more directorial humanity briefly appears when Jan rescues a little girl, Urszula (Shira Haas), after her brutal rape by Nazi soldiers. Shots focussing on anonymous extras playing their parts with an unfortunate but unmissable lack of talent feel more like atmospheric images supposed to create a general sense of misery rather than genuine moments of concern for the lives lost to war. Once the Warsaw ghetto is established, Caro shows as little of it as possible. Depicting the bombing of Warsaw from the zoo makes narrative sense, yet ignoring the human deaths is disturbing to say the least. Caro dismisses the very thing that makes this true story interesting, namely the terrifying situation that Antonina refused to give in to. After a while, even baby rabbits and funny-looking lamas can’t make up for a half-hearted devotion to the reality of resistance.Īntonina’s assuredly heartbreaking uncertainty indeed gets lost in the film’s smoothing out of the horror she witnesses. Yet rather than focusing on the tough moral dilemmas faced by those wanting to resist, the slow pacing and countless shots of cute animals and hardworking zoo employees translate as hesitation and lazy (and often laughable) button-pushing. Yet the promise of showing the heroism of this tender but determined woman when the Nazi invasion occurs in 1939 isn’t kept by a meandering and spineless script.Ĭaro takes her time to first establish the peacefulness of the Zabinskis’ life, then their understandable hesitation to hide their persecuted Jewish friends in their zoo.
The real-life story of one working wife and mother who became a hero to hundreds during World War II.
Together with her loving husband Jan (Johan Heldenbergh), she runs a picturesque zoo in Warsaw. The Zookeepers Wife on DVD Jstarring Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenbergh, Daniel Brühl, Michael McElhatton.
#Who played in the zookeepers wife movie#
It feels too restrained and some of those artistic compromises make for a movie that feels. She’s all colourful dresses and hands-on care for the elephants, lions and other animals. The Zookeeper's Wife, as a PG-13 movie, does not feel like the ideal way to tell this real-life story. Daniel Bruhl is on autopilot as a sneering Nazi with eyes on both the Zabinskis animals and Antonina herself, and Johan Heldenbergh whom you may have noticed as the sad-eyed writer and star of The Broken Circle Breakdown a few years back is woefully underused as Jan.Jessica Chastain accordingly proffers all her natural cuteness and talent (including a convincing-enough Polish accent) to the character of Antonina Zabinski. And while Chastain cant not be interesting as the inflexible Antonina, who figures out a way to resist the Nazi occupation while pretending to collaborate, shes clearly filling in the blanks of a character thats as flatly conceived as everything else in the picture. Which makes sense, I guess, but its still disappointing.īased on Dianea Ackermans nonfiction book, The Zookeepers Wife is a functional but stiff historical drama about Antonina and Jan Zabinski, who used their Warsaw zoo to shelter and rescue hundreds of Polish Jews during the Second World War.Īngela Workmans screenplay draws some very simple moral lines: the Germans are cruel, the Poles are noble, the Jews are scared and grateful for any help. The Zookeepers Wife is the first movie from Jessica Chastains production company, Freckle Films, and shes playing it a little safe. Jessica Chastain stars as Antonina Zabinski in The Zookeeper's Wife.
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