Rolling Stone Australia — June 2017

The Zookeeper’s Wife

Jessica Chastain,

Johan Heldenbergh,

Daniel Brühl

Directed by Niki Caro

★★★

it’s an incredible true

story, how a Polish couple shel-

teredJewsduringWWIIin

their abandoned zoo in War-

saw.Whatashamethen,that

in adapting the book by Diane

Ackerman,screenwriterAnge-

laWorkmanletsthedialogue

runtotheblandestofbromides.

It’sfortunatethatthestellardi-

rector Niki Caro (WhaleRider)

rarelyletstheactiongoslack,

using striking visuals that ex-

presssomuchmorethanthe

clunky verbiage. And in Jessica

Chastain,Carofindsanactress

ready to use everything she’s

gottobringthetitleroletolife.

Though her Polish accent

owestoomuchtoMerylStreep’s

Eastern European lilt fromSo-

phie’s Choice,Chastainisradi-

antasAntoninaZabinski,the

wife of a zookeeper named Jan

(Johan Heldenbergh). In the

early scenes, before the hos-

tilities, Caro’s camera follows

Antonina’s morning ritual of

riding her bicycle around the

lovely art-nouveau zoo, feed-

ing the animals and talking

to them like a female Dr. Do-

little.Later,wewatchhergive

CPRtoachokingbabyelephant

withitsmotherreadytostrike

if anyone does her calf harm.

Antonina’s respect for animal

life is boundless; she even lets

her young son sleep with lion

cubs. The serpent in this Eden

slithers in with the Nazis. Caro

brings astonishing power to a

bombingraidonthezoothat

panics the animals, many of

whom are later shot by Ger-

man soldiers in scenes of dev-

astating terror.

Oddly, it’s the humanism of

Antonina and Jan, whose he-

roic efforts helped save nearly

300 Jews, that fails to emerge

with equal force. Antonina ad-

mits it’s easier for her to trust

animals. “You look in their

eyes,” she says, “and you know

exactlywhatisintheirhearts.”

ThecompassionoftheZabins-

kis is never in doubt. They risk

theirlivestosmuggleJewsout

oftheWarsawghettoingar-

bage trucks and hide them in

the zoo’s underground tunnels

andcages,allundertheeyesof

occupying soldiers.

When Hitler’s favourite zool-

ogist, Lutz Heck (Inglourious

Basterds’DanielBrühl),comes

sniffing around, Antonina sub-

mits to his flirtations to deflect

his suspicions. Brühl brings

complexity to the role until the

script reduces him to villain-

ous caricature. As a result, the

tension that should driveThe

Zookeeper’s Wifeebbs away in

boilerplate storytelling. What

makesthefilmworthwhile,de-

spiteitsflaws,arethosescenes

of human and animal despera-

tion that encapsulate the hor-

rors of war.

By Peter Travers

Movies

86 | Rolling Stone ★★★★★ Classic | ★★★★ Excellent | ★★★ Good | ★★ Fair | ★ Poor Ju ne, 2017

Heroes of World War Zoo