Wow! Such a good movie.

ridiculous rating

Crappy film

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Firstly, I'm quite shocked by the negative reviews. This film stands up next to classics, in particular Schindler's List, to depict the horror of the Jewish suffering and violation in Eastern Europe in WW2. It is not so graphic but shows the lengths non-Jewish people went to, to save their fellow human beings. Intensely poignant and heartbreaking at times. Yes it's not all about zoo animals but that's not really the point. A tale worth telling, and very well told.

After Hitler's Luftwaffe bombings of Poland's capital, Warsaw; caretakers Jan Zabinkski (Johan Heldenbergh) and his wife Antonina (Jessica Chastain) turn their zoo into a different kind of sanctuary. While the Nazi' occupation is rounding up Jews to be taken away to be beaten and murdered; the zookeeper's wife works with a high ranking Nazi to protect the zoo animals. At the same time, Antonina and her husband work with the Resistance in an effort to hide Jews from the wartime carnage. Disturbing scenes of destruction, people and animals being shot; implied rape scene along with brutal battles, bombing and horrific explosions relate the drama of this true story. Compassion and courage against tremendous odds shows inspiration. Overview of the remaining cast: Daniel Bruhl, Frederick Preston, Michael McElhatton, Shira Haas, Timothy Radford and Efrat Dor.

This film has a very interesting back story so I was interested in watching it and I have now seen it and unfortunately though not terrible this film is incredibly forgettable. The premise of the film is based on a true story that sees a couple hide Jewish refugees in there zoo from the nazis. Jessica chastain plays the lead in the film and this isn't one of her best performances, she is clearly passionate about the role and she does her best with what she is given. But she overacts all the way through this movie and she feels very wooden and not real at all. Her emotional scenes usually come across as forced and very much like it is a script and not her if that makes sense. The supporting cast is a mixed bag, I liked the actor who plays her husband I thought he gave the best performance in the film but even he starts to overact towards the end of the film. Daniel bruhl is in this film and he does a decent job especially at the beginning of the film but as the film progresses his character becomes as cliché as you can get. Nobody else in the film gets any important screen time so when the film asks you to care you just don't which hurts the film. As mentioned before the story has an interesting concept and It is a bit interesting to watch and wonder how these people did what they did. But there are so many problems, there are aspects of the film that aren't expanded on enough and aspects that are focused on too much. It is a highly predictable film which doesn't give any surprises at all. The script has some decent drama with some particularly uncomfortable scenes that work well. Though there is absolutely no humour or life in this film even when these people are meant to be happy it just feels unreal. The style of the film looks good with the sets and animals especially coming across well, but this films pacing is really poor and just feels boring. Also this film has a really confusing way of showing time and how much has passed and it made it hard to follow. Overall this film isn't that bad it just is really forgettable and not worth a watch as you won't remember it.

Too slow. The Nazis killed everything that moved. Jews, gypsies, camels, eagles, and mexicans, ok the last killing was committed by Donald Trump. The movie was too slow, really no story to tell. The accents were annoying and the kids sure were well fed for being in an occupied Poland. Jessica Chastain has great lips that's what i kept thinking. No need to make this movie. How about Jessica hunting down Kim Jong Un like she did with Osama bin Laden. Now that's a movie that needs to be made.