Click here to copy URL

The Zookeeper's Wife

2017

Niki Caro

Jessica Chastain, Daniel Brühl, Johan Heldenbergh, Iddo Goldberg ...

6.1

3,919

Drama. War The Zookeeper's Wife tells the account of keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who helped save hundreds of people and animals during the Nazi invasion. Based on the unpublished diary of Antonina, it recounts the true story of how she and her husband, Jan, director of the Warsaw Zoo, saved the lives of 300 Jews who had been imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto following the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939.

	Author	Review
United States	Jon Frosch The Hollywood Reporter	"The movie's central figures and their experiences have been cleansed of complexity, embalmed in a sort of hagiographic glaze that makes even the pain look pretty"	NEG
United States	Peter Debruge Variety	"[It] leaves us caring more about the animals than its human souls (...) Caro's movie fails to muster even a fraction of the suspense such life-and-death material naturally demands."	NEG
United States	David Ehrlich IndieWire	"Jessica Chastain shines in a solid, unexpectedly sweet holocaust drama (...) Beautifully realized"	POS
United States	Robert Abele The Wrap	"Jessica Chastain saves Polish Jews but can’t rescue the movie (...) [A] bland historical fare"	NEG
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"[It] can't escape clichés – but does boast excellent lead performance"	NEU
United States	Sara Stewart New York Post	"As director Niki Caro’s handsome drama shows, the way people treat animals is a good indicator of how they’ll treat human beings (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Joe Dziemianowicz New York Daily News	"The film is at its best when Chastain is on screen (...) The actress shines bright in a star turn rich in focus, emotion and honesty (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"	POS
Canada	Bruce Demara Toronto Star	"'The Zookeeper's Wife' is a well-executed film. But it doesn't bring fresh perspective to Nazi crimes in Poland (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	Stephen Holden The New York Times	"Ms. Chastain’s watchful, layered performance helps keep the film on an even keel, but it is not enough to prevent 'The Zookeeper’s Wife' (...) from feeling like a Disney version of the Holocaust."	NEU
United Kingdom	Jordan Hoffman The Guardian	"[It] has moments of power but also suffers from an uneven script (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United Kingdom	Tim Grierson Screendaily	"'The Zookeeper’s Wife' remains frustratingly distant and undernourished, the worthiness of the story consistently outpacing the execution."	NEG

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.