by Charles Kirkland, Jr.
“A tale about a tail” focuses on Natasha, a worker at the zoo. Her co-workers despise and torment her. Natasha tolerates them for her job but her joy is the animals. She talks to all the animals and they seem to respond to her. It’s like she has a special connection with them. Could it be her tail? Yes, Natasha has a tail.
Not a little nub on her backside, she has long, prehensile tail! Natasha lives with her mother who has heard rumors around their small Russian hamlet about a devil woman with a tail and constantly warns her daughter. Natasha desperately wants to get rid of the tail and runs into an x-ray technician who discovers her secret while trying to help her. Oddly, they start a romance and Natasha finds that maybe having a tail is not really bad.
Zoology is the second directorial effort by 28-year-old Ivan Tverdovsky whose first effort, Corrections Class was a delightful and empowering film.
This movie, however, muddles along and frustrates. Everything in the movie, Natasha’s decisions, her co-workers, her mother, her love interest and even the clergy is aggravating. Thankfully, the movie did not drag itself out and came to its unsatisfying conclusion rather quickly.
Grade: D