*Warning: Potential Spoilers*
Depending on the location, World War Two lasted anywhere between four and eight years. Nearly every country in the world participated in the war, in some way or another, and it’s estimated that 1.9 billion people fought in the war. That’s not including the people who died as a result but did no actual fighting. So why is it that, almost seventy years later, we are still incapable of telling more than one story about a time that affected everyone and everywhere? That’s all The Zookeeper’s Wife is – the same story with the same villains and the same lukewarm techniques to make its audience feel like they need to cry, even though they knew this was how the story was most likely going to go. This is not to say that the stories of people who saved lives during the war are unimportant. Those people and what they risked is nothing short of amazing. The problem is that we’ve told so many stories of heroes who saved people from the Nazis that, other than a couple gimmicks, they all seem the same now. Whatever emotional punch The Zookeeper’s Wife might have had is lost when you realize that the “zoo” of it all is less important than the title makes it seem. It’s not a bad movie – it’s just not a new one.
ReelTalk 