The Zookeeper’s Wife

— There are some problems with this film but the audience was not deterred—they liked the film and there was applause when the credits rolled. I felt the odd mix of emotions myself, having had a few tears comes to my eyes, letting the film take me from sadness to joy a few times, and marveling at Jessica Chastain who always seems to be riveting, even though she can’t pull off an accent as well as Meryl. It’s hard not to like the film since its story is so compelling and many of the scenes are certainly memorable. Chastain plays Antonina Zabinski who, along with her husband Jan, ran the Warsaw Zoo and saved around 300 Jews during the war by hiding them until there was a way to get them out of the country. The problem with the film seems to be that the images are a little too “clean” and the horror of the Holocaust is somehow lessened, along with the fact that there’s not much backstory about any of the characters, but it is worth seeing and I liked it. As much as anything, it probably suffers the fate of so many others that beg to be compared to “Schindler’s List” and really can’t compare.

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[2017. 124 min. Directed by Niki Caro. Starring Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenbergh, and Daniel Bruhl.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-zookeepers-wife-2017