But The Zookeeper's Wife is not solely comprised of footage of Jessica Chastain channeling her inner Kratt Brothers and interacting with cute animals. You see, Antonina (Jessica Chastain) and her husband, Jan Zabinski (Johan Heldenbergh), run their zoo in Warsaw in 1939, meaning it isn't long before Nazi forces invade the country. They soon take over the couples zoo, making it a base of operation of sorts for a variety of Nazi officer and soldiers. Nearby, the Warsaw ghetto is established as a holding place for Jewish citizens and the horrifying sight of seeing their neighbors being rounded up like this causes Jan and Antonina to come up with a plan.
They decide to use their underground bunkers previously used to hold their animals (the animals in their zoo, aside from some piggies, have either been shot or transported out of the area by Nazi officers) will be used as to hide their Jesish neighbors from the Gestapo. It's a plan requiring a lot of courage, wit and cunning and it's one that makes for some pretty good cinema in The Zookeeper's Wife. Director Niki Caro (director of the upcoming Mulan remake and Whale Rider, a movie I should really see) chooses to execute this premise in a more straightforward fashion that's been used by many past films dealing with very serious real life events, though many past films have choosen to use this style of filmmaking to shoehorn in plenty of sweeping speeches and corny moments into horrifying circumstances (see: last year's Patriot's Day as an example of this cringe-inducing phenomenon).
Thankfully, The Zookeeper's Wife actually surprised me in its more quiet and contemplative nature, with numerous sequences allowing the the viewer to take in either the horrors the various Nazi personnel are committing or the relief found in the Zabinski household. Going for the more quiet and intimate allows the shocking nature of the brutality committed by Nazi forces to sink in (as if the horrors of the Holocaust aren't immediately obvious of course) while also lending a sense of realism to the calmer but still extremely intense scenes at the Zabinski home. A scene depicting Antonina (and a little rabbit) talking with a silent young girl who has been abused by Nazi officers is a great example of Caro's naturalism, with even Harry Gregson-Williams score taking a breather during this moment so that the interaction between the two characters can grab the audiences full attention.
In the midst of tremendously harrowing circumstances, these two human beings are able to connect and the way The Zookeeper's Wife develops that idea in a more subdued manner allows the scene to seriously flourish. Once the movie hits the halfway mark, some of the more quiet and restrained elements get jettisoned for some questionable elements that seriously don't gel with the rest of the movie, including a forced subplot wherein Jan thinks his wife is hooking up with Nazi officer Lutz Heck (Daniel Bruhl, who, tragically for the most prominent German actor for the American film industry, is seen as just a go-to guy for Nazi roles).
This scene doesn't even make sense in the context of previously established plot and character details that we've seen related to both Jan and Antonina's relationship and its abrupt resolution only emphasizes how out-of-place it is. A few other elements in the script by Angela Workman are similarly introduced in a wonky manner, namely Antonina's pregnancy in 1943, which is suddenly introduced in one shot and then she's seen giving birth 30 seconds later. The little girl she gives birth to doesn't factor heavily into the movie afterwards. Such an odd story choice in a movie that has actually quite a few thoughtful narrative decisions to its name.
All that being said, Niki Caro does solid work in getting good performances and working with cinematographer Andrij Parekh. There are plenty of shots in here that manage to translate the movies restrained sensibilities from a writing level to a visual perspective that work exceedingly well, such as eerie shots of Antonina's scattered animals roamning nearby streets after some bombs have desolated their zoo. Oh, and speaking of good performances, Jessica Chastain adds yet another strong performance to her repertoire, using her now trademark conviction as an actor (no matter the role, this lady is gonna go for it 110%) to create a thoroughly engaging human being whose made up of empathy for human beings and animals alike. This may be a bold statement to make, but I'd say she makes for a more interesting Zookeeper than Kevin James did in The Zookeeper. But maybe that's just me.
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