Not as good as it should be

Rating: 6/10 (11 January 2009)

Edward Zwick is one of the good guys, as it were. His films have often been really brilliant and under-appreciated works. Of late, he has been on top form, producing the excellent "Blood Diamond" and the exceptional "The Last Samurai". At the heart of both of these were interesting ideas, gripping stories and enthralling characters.
With "Defiance", Zwick seems to have struck gold. He has found an extraordinary story about the Bielski brothers who, during the Holocaust, not only managed to evade capture by the S.S. but established a community for fugitive Jews in the woods of Belorussia.
It is a great and inspiring tale, and yet Zwick manages to make a bit of a dud film out of it. This is made stranger still when you consider that he has three excellent central performances and a fine supporting cast who all prove to be very watchable, on top of a story which sounds like an absolute cracker. Appearances, of course, can be deceptive.
To deal with the positives, this is a very well performed piece. Daniel Craig may be the lead but, despite another fine turn from Craig, this is Liev Schreiber's film. The latter's character is the more interesting of the two  a brooding and angry man who struggles to control himself. Craig's character struggles to control others, but disappoints later on as he goes from being an interesting man through most of the film into a fairly dull hero by the end. There is also an impressive performance from Jamie Bell who has matured into a fine actor and manages to make the most of his screen time here.
So, why doesn't it quite work? Despite doing a perfectly solid job in most areas, Zwick has fallen in love with his story a bit too much. The film simply lacks a bit of thrust. There are moments of interest but a lot of the over two hours of film is people sitting around in woods. This extraordinary piece of history needed more honing to become the superb piece of film that it could have been. There simply isn't anything of the brothers before the war and their characters lack some emotional depth. It is an example of film which never quite lives up to its potential.
This is perfectly solid and has many positives, but strangely for an Ed Zwick film, the entertainment factor is quite low here. A great story this is, but it just doesn't quite make the sort of film that it perhaps should.
3 Stars out of 5