As I mentioned in my last review I tend to go and see two films in the same day at the cinema since I signed up to the Cineworld unlimited card. The first film my husband, I and our friend saw this weekend was this one before we had our meal and then went back in to see Role Models! We all thought this sounded like a great film due to the cast and the trailers we had seen for it on previous visits to the cinema.

The cast:
I have to admit that when I saw the trailers for this back in December I was quite keen to see it just because Daniel Craig was in it! However it certainly seemed quite an intense film from the trailers and obviously a very sensitive subject too. Ultimately the cast did a job very well and I don't any complaints with any of the cast that I saw during this film. I would say that Daniel Craig is playing the lead character here in the role of Tuvia. As Tuvia he was the man in charge of the group living in the forest and I really thought it was shown well here a man who you could see was struggling to keep the people fed, sheltered and also believing that his way of doing things would ultimately be for the best. He constantly struggled between right and wrong. To kill for the sake of it was not what he wanted to do but, he knew when it was necessary to do so to protect himself and the group of people that he was protecting and that was growing constantly as more Jewish people came to find his help.
I can't really say I have seen much of the actor Liev Schreiber, who plays Zus Bielski in other films except for Scream so I cannot really compare that film to this as very different altogether! However, I do think he was very good. He, unlike his brother Tuvia wanted to fight and wanted to kill as many Germans as he could. This is why he joins forces with the Russian resistance and even though he knows they are keener to protect themselves he knows this is the only way he can do what he needs to do. It is only when the Russians decided to leave their base because of an impending attack that he knows he must go back to his brother's camp to help protect them as the Russians are hoping that the camp of his brothers will slow down the Germans in reaching them. He also plays a role that is torn between what he must do - take out as many Germans as possible or help his brothers? We see him also struggling to do what he feels is right. I was quite impressed by his performance and would certainly say he did the role justice.
I was surprised to see Jamie Bell in this film as I hadn't really noticed him during the trailers and I guess I was unsure if he would be able to pull this role off - after all I only really remember him as playing the role of Billy Elliott! However again I was pretty much wowed by his performance of Asael - maybe not as much as the other two but, still very good indeed. We see him as a younger brother of these two trying to do what he thinks is best. He does stay in camp with Tuvia and this is partly due to the fact that he falls in love and also marries a girl named Chaya whilst living in the forest. I was impressed that he managed to pull off such a serious role. You can see he is playing the part of wanting to follow his brother and so help him run camp whilst at the same time wanting to protect his wife.
The part of Aron was played by actor George Mackay - relatively unknown to me but, I believe he was in Peter Pan and various other small TV and film parts. He doesn't have as much screen time as the other three at all and his role is fairly small in comparison. However he certainly does manage to do his role well. As the youngest of the four brothers, he is more affected by what he has seen as we learn he saw his father being killed at the start of the film and so becomes drawn into himself. He doesn't have much to say but, he plays the scared young lad very well.
There are plenty of other actors that combine to make this film as good as it is including two who play a main role in the camp. Actors Mark Feuerstein, who plays Isaac and Allan Corduner as Shamon both shine and are present from early on in the film.