Jews that fight

Rating: 7/10 (13 February 2011)

Fine acting performances help compensate for average production values in this WWII tale of Jewish partisans living in the forest in Belorussia while the Holocaust is unfolding. The three Beilski brothers disagree on just about everything, except the need to survive. Zus (Liev Schreiber) is the hothead, harbouring simmering jealousy at his brother's leadership role. Tuvia (an immense Daniel Craig) is that reluctant leader, taking care of the elderly and sick through a winter in a forest because his conscience won't let him do otherwise. Asael is the younger brother stuck in the middle, unsure which of his brothers to follow. Played by Jamie Bell, this is the first role I have seen him in where he did not bring to mind Billy Elliot.
Language-wise the film is a muddle, the actors sometimes speaking in foreign tongues and at other times heavily-accented English. If the switch is meant to signal something, it was lost on me. The female characters serve mostly to create conflict among the men, or highlight their vulnerability.
But the film on the whole convinces and holds your attention. It builds nicely at the end when the Bielski group seem to be pinned in an unwinnable situation. On the whole the film avoids sentimentalizing, especially in one funeral scene where the oratory by the rabbi succinctly captures the suffering of the Jews in WWII. Not a great film by any means, but better than I expected.