Just when you think you’ve seen every World War movie plot imaginable, comes a story directed by Ed Zwick about three Jewish brothers who escape Nazi-occupied Poland and join forces to build a village in order to protect themselves and others who are in danger. With a touch of “Robin Hood” – and since most of takes place in the Bellarussian forest – Tuvia (Daniel Craig) is somehow the chosen of the group (that grows in numbers) to oversee the rules “no pregnancies – we can’t afford another mouth to feed” and the decisions of when to open fire on intruding Germans. His other brothers Zus (Live Schreiber) and Asael (Jamie Bell) usually listen, sometimes get into a tiff, and at one point, Zus leaves to join the Russian resistance for much of the movie. Based on a true story, these men seek revenge on all Germans because of the death of their parents at the hands of a Police Captain. While it’s an interesting and painful story, it’s often hard to understand what’s going on with Schreiber and Craig’s very good but fake accents. When they choose ‘forest wives’(a new term for ‘mistress’) as opposed to their village wives left home with their children, Tuvia chooses Lilka (Alexa Davalos) a beautiful French actress who does an effective and passionate job in her supporting role of Tuvia and the other women. Two and a half tiaras
