{"id":6621,"date":"2017-05-16T07:03:14","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T11:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6621"},"modified":"2017-05-31T07:45:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T11:45:13","slug":"their-finest-the-zookeepers-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6621","title":{"rendered":"Two Good Movies: Their Finest & The Zookeeper\u2019s Wife"},"content":{"rendered":"

It turned out that these two weekend movies had more in common than their World War II settings, strong female protagonists, and top-notch acting. Both were marred by trailers that told too much, so no trailers today. Avoid the previews if you can, but not the movies. (Or, order the books these films were based on. Affiliate links below.)<\/p>\n

\"Sam

Sam Claflin and Gemma Arterton in Their Finest<\/p><\/div>\n

Their Finest<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

While this drama, adapted by Gabby Chiappe Directed by Lone Scherfig, is too serious to be a comedy, it offers many laugh-out-loud moments, as well as a few tears along the way. The conceit is that the British government has commissioned a feature film that will inspire Britons and, with luck, the Americans too, to support the war effort. The subject: the inspiring evacuation of Dunkirk.<\/p>\n

The filmmakers realize they need to appeal to women in the audience, so they hire a young woman (Gemma Arterton) for the writing team to create \u201cthe slop\u201d\u2014that is, the female dialog. She turns out to more than fill the bill and has the chance to find her own voice along the way.<\/p>\n

In addition to Arterton, fine performances from Sam Claflin as the cynical head writer, Bill Nighy as an over-the-hill actor who\u2019s never fully convinced he shouldn\u2019t be the romantic lead, Rachael Stirling as a spy for the foreign office with a soft heart, and Helen McCrory as Nighy\u2019s no-nonsense agent. You\u2019ll love the Jeremy Irons cameo, in which he gets carried away delivering Henry V<\/em>\u2019s \u201cband of brothers\u201d speech.<\/p>\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics\u2019 rating 87%; audiences 77%.<\/p>\n

The Zookeeper\u2019s Wife<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Jessica

Jessica Chastain in The Zookeeper’s Wife<\/p><\/div>\n

On the very positive side, this drama about Jews hidden in the wreckage of the Warsaw Zoo is based on a true story. Right now, when meanness seems to trump acts of charity and compassion, that\u2019s an important message.<\/p>\n

At the same time, there\u2019s quite a bit of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu here, as director Niki Caro fails to plow new ground or to \u201ccapture the many layers of this unique story, relying instead on plainly-stated metaphors,\u201d said Sheila O\u2019Malley<\/a> on Rogerebert.com, and a contrived and unpersuasive relationship between the main character and “Hitler’s zookeeper.”<\/p>\n

Antonina and Jan Zabi\u0144ski really did save more than three hundred Jews after German bombs and stormtroopers destroyed their zoo. They hid the refugees in their own home, changed their appearance, gave them false papers, and spirited them away, under the enemy\u2019s noses.<\/p>\n

See it for the animals, the fine performance by Jessica Chastain as Antonina, and for the reminder that even in extreme circumstances there are people who believe, as Jan Zabi\u0144ski said many years later, \u201cIf you can save somebody\u2019s life, it\u2019s your duty to try.\u201d Supporting performances are strong as well. Written by Angela Workman.<\/p>\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics\u2019 rating: 60%; audiences, 81%.
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It turned out that these two weekend movies had more in common than their World War II settings, strong female protagonists, and top-notch acting. Both were marred by trailers that told too much, so no trailers today. Avoid the previews … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Their Finest & The Zookeeper\u2019s Wife - well acted WWII movies with powerful stories","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[366,266,57,104],"tags":[1015,333,1013,1012,129,1014,446],"class_list":["post-6621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drama","category-history","category-movies","category-the-morgue","tag-jews","tag-london","tag-the-zookeepers-wife","tag-their-finest","tag-wars-and-conflicts","tag-warsaw","tag-world-war-ii"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1IN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6627,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621\/revisions\/6627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}