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Weekend Film Reviews

The Zookeeper's Wife

Hosted by Joe Morgenstern Mar. 31, 2017 Entertainment
Not all wonderful books are meant to be mainstream fiction films.

In a production based on a non-fiction book by Diane Ackerman, a brilliantly specific story has been reduced to conventional drama and synthetic heroics. The Zookeeper's Wife takes on much more than it can handle with any focus, clarity or narrative logic — the fate of the animals; the fate of the Jews in hiding (most of whom are generic presences rather than individuals); the Warsaw uprising as the Nazis' hold on the city weakens.

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Host:

Joe Morgenstern

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