A heart warming story about a woman and her love for animal started this Wednesday in the cinemas, and so here is my review of
The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)
TRAILER:
Director:
Niki CaroStars:
Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, disturbing images, violence, brief sexuality, nudity and smoking.
Details:
Language:
EnglishRelease Date:
31 March 2017 (USA)Also Known As:
AzylFilming Locations:
Company Credits
Production Co:
Storyline:
The Zookeeper's Wife tells the account of keepers of the Warsaw Zoo,
Antonina and Jan Zabinski, who helped save hundreds of people and
animals during the German invasion.
Review:
The Zookeeper's Wife has a running time of 124 minutes and plays in Prague in short before the beginning of the second world war. The action takes place in a zoo, where a keeper is totally addicted to her animals, of whom she is taking care. But one day the war reaches also the town, and the zoo got bombarded. The zoo has to close and all the employees are taking over, most likely send to prison by the Germans. Being in hostage the keeper learns a lot about other people, religion, and values of appreciating her job and her passion. Not everyone can understand her love and passion for animals, and at the end it is a fight about what is right or wrong with having such a kind of love, what are values, and what if a the war affects in a way, that you cannot live with anymore, and puts yourself into a life crises. There are the topics, which can be transported into our present time today as well, because war in still out there and a lot of people have to give up on what they love because of violence. But let me tell you before, the movie is just average, it is okay, nothing special, has no new innovative things, and it is too long.
The CAST is set by the main character Jessica Chastain, who plays Antonina Zabinski, the wife, who has a special love for animals, who loves her job, and who cannot understand what is happening. She is like a classical mama, who also loves her family, and stands for values like freedom, love, peace, and happiness. Her performance is steady, not good, not bad, she is too plastic in some moments, and does not give us any surprises like changing her mind and character.
The second main character is Daniel Brühl, who is playing Lutz Heck, a German zoologist, animal researcher, animal book author and director of the large zoo in the German capital city, coming into the town of Prague to take over the zoo, and hired by the German's army. He is amazing to watch and each of his moves makes sense, and did not confuse me. In general it is always good to see Daniel Brühl, because he is a charming guy, plays in a really intelligent way, and also in The Zookeeper's Wife he is good, and gives us reasons why things happened.
The CAMERA is okay. During the action moments, when the bombs are falling a bit too hectically for my personal taste, calm and a bit too slow in bringing out the feelings and emotions of the main characters.
The MUSIC is okay as well, not too much, nothing special to mention.
The EFFECTS are also okay, sometimes I got reminded of Pearl Harbour, especially in the moments, when Prague was attacked.
CONCLUSION:
What I like about the movie:
It is a good and solid performance of the actors and main characters, it is a nice interpretation of what animals might have a meaning for us, and it is nice to see when a girl cares.
What I do not like about the movie:
It is too long, 40 minutes less would have been better, the action and story telling is too slow, and also some movements of the main characters are not understandable. Like when there is a feeding and Antonina is in the cage with wild animals lions, she is just sitting there, facing the people with her back, no interaction, and no talking to the people. Kind of boring actions and movements.
All in all it is a movie which is okay. The movie is based on a true story, and also based on the book with the name. So for it's genre as bio-pics, history, drama, and war movie I will give it 6/10, overall 5/10. Thanks for reading and have fun watching.
