DVD Review: The Zookeeper's Wife.

-
Hide them.

Antonina and Jan Zabinski (Jessica Chastain and Johan Heldenbergh) run the Warsaw Zoo. Their happy existence is ruined by German bombs during World War II. Since most of their animals are relocated, with all the space on their property they begin hiding Jews from the Nazis.

This is an incredible true story. The film doesn't shy away from the horrors of WWII but by the end credits it feels slightly uplifting. It takes a lot of courage to do what the brave people who protected their Jewish friends during this time did. And you always feel the stakes. Especially with Lutz (Daniel Brühl) constantly snooping around and harassing Antonia.

I loved the cast. I don't know how well their Polish accents were but they sounded okay. It was nice to see Michael McElhatton in a small, kind role. He's such a wonderful actor and I'm so used to him as Roose Bolton. It's nice to see him be a decent dude on screen.

The film has a pretty massive flaw in my opinion, but I can't go into it without massive spoilers. I haven't researched it to see if that was truly how everything went down, but if not it seems extremely sort sighted.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B-

Memorable Quote: "You can never tell who your enemies are, or who to trust. Maybe that's why I love animals so much. You look in their eyes, and you know exactly what's in their hearts. They're not like people." - Antonia

Comments

  1. s.January 3, 2018 at 11:09 AM

    I haven't seen this one yet, but i love the director, she did North Country. This seems like a good movie, Chastain was even here to promote it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJanuary 3, 2018 at 11:37 AM

      I didn't realize it was the same director who did North Country. I never got around to seeing that.

      Delete
  2. keith71_98January 3, 2018 at 1:18 PM

    I really liked this movie. It made my 11-20 for 2017. I thought Chastain was outstanding. You nail it when you said "You always feel the stakes". So true.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJanuary 10, 2018 at 8:14 AM

      This somehow ended up in my spam folder. I'm glad you liked this too!

      Delete
  3. thevoid99January 3, 2018 at 3:32 PM

    I have this in my never-ending DVR list as I might see it as I do like Jessica Chastain and a couple of the films that Niki Caro did like North Country and McFarland, USA.

    ReplyDelete
  4. BirgitJanuary 3, 2018 at 9:33 PM

    I agree with that quote so much. This was a difficult film to watch especially at the beginning when the cute camel is done in. I still can’t get that out of my head even though I know the camel I see alive and well, it just made me cry. Look at me, I’m talking More about the animals than the humans. I did try to read up on this more but have forgotten some info and need to reread

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJanuary 4, 2018 at 6:33 AM

      lol that's perfectly normal. It's sad all around.

      Delete
  5. KatyJanuary 7, 2018 at 7:40 PM

    Nice review! This has been on my to-watch list, and I'm anxious to see what the flaw is since WWII is a big subject I'm a history buff for...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJanuary 7, 2018 at 10:59 PM

      It might be a real thing, but it was such a massive plot device, I'd be shocked if it were true. I should look it up.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen...
Read more

My Favorite Movie Youtube Channels

-
Image
Starting around 2018, I started watching Youtube for more than just movie trailers or music videos whenever a new one dropped. Now I'm in full blown subscription mode and don't bat an eyelash at watching a Youtube video that's over an hour long. I watch Youtube for a few different categories of content, but one of them that I love most is movie/TV essays and commentary, and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Below is a list of my favorite movie related Youtube channels. Let me know if you're familiar with them too, or if you have any you'd like to recommend to me.  Double Toasted - I'm honestly surprised this channel isn't bigger. I first came across Korey and Martin when they reviewed War for the Planet of the Apes a few months before it hit theaters and I thought they were hysterical. While their full length videos stream on Twitch, they often upload their movie reviews and commentary on youtube and they're always hilarious. They've...
Read more