Review: The Zookeeper's Wife

A film involving a zoo and its animals, I am there. That, and the story itself sounds like a winnable concept.

The first act was pretty solid. I felt I can root for these characters and the flow of the story was pleasing.
As the film went on, it started to slowly lose momentum with me. Towards the final act, it re-gathered speed.

Sadly in the end, I could go as far as to say this was kind of forgettable. None of it was bad. There was just not that many memorable moments that I recall when leaving the screening.

I had mixed feelings with Jessica Chastain's performance. I am big fan of hers ever since I saw her in 'The Help'. In this film as the lead, she most certainly is committed to the role, and you feel the hero in her character. But her Polish accent was really strange. I will give her credit that it was never inconsistent. But it did not feel genuine to me and it gave me that same feeling of when I hear an American's attempt at a British accent. It will always sound like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.

It was great to see Daniel Bruhl in this, as he is always good, especially when donning a Nazi uniform. It was also good to see Johan Heldenbergh, as I remember him from the great Belgian film The Broken Circle Breakdown. While he might not have the charisma of your typical a-lister, he played his part well and supported Chastain's character rather well.

While it did not go the way I was hoping, this is still a solid story. I would celebrate this film for the true story alone. It's clear in its message. It's inspiring and it never lets the war environment shadow the themes of the story. The strength of the performances keeps this film engaging enough.
Some of the scenes that were meant to be tense, did its job well. You can feel the danger and self-sacrifice these characters were putting themselves into.

However, it seemed to lack that emotional impact for a story such as heroic as this one. I don't think the film does it enough justice, which is a real shame. There were some sub-plots that could have been better executed. There were also some strange editing moments that took me a while to work out how much time has passed. A lot of these may look like nit-picking. But it also can come across as the film not being engaging enough for me to ignore them.

But there was enough in there to make this passable viewing.

I must mention that there were some distressing scenes. But thankfully, most of it is implied. Doing that will make this film more accessible and give it a better chance of appealing to a wider audience.

Rating: 7/10