Defiance

Rating:

* * *

Verdict:

Interesting tale with good performances but lacks emotional punch.

Defiance

is a Holocaust survival story directed by the battle-hardened Edward Zwick (

The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond

) and based on the heroic actions of three Eastern European Jews, the Bielski brothers, who escaped the Nazis by hiding in the forests of Belarus during World War II.

Daniel Craig stars as the oldest brother Tuvia, who returns to his rural home to find his parents dead and his two brothers, Zus (Schreiber) and Asael (Bell), hiding out in the forest. Hungry for revenge the brothers return to their village, and hunt down their parents' killers and Nazi collaborators in a violent rampage before returning to the forest.

Word spreads about the Bielskis and they are joined in the forest by more refugees. Together they endure attacks from the local police, devastatingly cold winters, sickness, and starvation.

Tuvia comes to consider the act of staying alive to be revenge enough against the German occupiers as he focuses on feeding his Otriad (resistance group) but Zus leaves the group, to join the Russian Resistance, in frustration.

While

Defiance

conveys the dire situation and conditions well, somehow it lacks the detail, context and grounding that would have helped make the Bielskis' story more compelling. It's hard, for example, to gauge just how well-hidden and endangered the group really were (considering they relied on locals for food and arms).

Craig puts in a solid performance and Jamie Bell proves he can do more than just dance (

Billy Elliot

), but it's Schreiber who is the most convincing.

Defiance

doesn't have enough action to call it purely a war film. Instead it's part-war flick, part-historical drama, part-family saga. But in trying to be all these things (there's a little romance thrown in as well) it loses focus and momentum, ultimately lacking the required emotional punch and tension to bring this true story to life. Francesca Rudkin

Cast:

Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell

Director:

Edward Zwick

Running time:

126 mins

Rating:

(M) Contains violence and offensive language