Zoology is a fable-like story with just the right dash of surrealism. However, writer-director Ivan I. Tverdovskiy gets too heavy-handed with allegories, preventing the premise from reaching its full potential. However, the acting is strong and there is enough wry humour in the film to make it a fairly pleasant watch.
Natasha (a thoroughly convincing and very dynamic Natalya Pavlenkova) is a middle-aged loser, bullied at work and still living with her mom. But she has a secret -- she has grown a tail, a pink, hairless appendage that seems to be not totally within her control. She goes to see the doctor about the tail, but the doctor keeps sending her back to take x-rays, as he always claims that the image isn't clear enough. Natasha becomes involved with the younger x-ray technician, Petya (likably played by Dmitriy Groshev), who is completely unbothered by the tail. Natasha is, at first, thrilled by the acceptance. But this becomes the source of the ultimate conflict in the film.
Tverdovskiy clearly intends the tail to be representative of something -- or perhaps many things, and this creates loopholes in the plot that even Natalya Pavlenkova's acting can't quite cover up. The ending feels rather contrived, and is not at all satisfying. If we see the tail as a symbol of Natasha's difference, then why does she suddenly decide to get rid of her tail when Petya demonstrates desire towards it? Up to that point, we see the positive changes Natasha's acceptance of her tail has had on her life, and when she joins in the communal gossiping about the unknown "devil woman" who has a tail, we see that she is encouraging the narrative of difference surrounding herself. In another scene, we see Natasha literally getting off with her tail, in the bathtub. One reading of the ending might be that Natasha feels fetishized and objectified by Petya, in that to him, what makes her different has taken over as her entire personality. While this dilemma between loving yourself for your uniqueness and being perceived as nothing more than a label would make for a great climax, the film does not flow naturally in this direction, and so the ending feels abrupt and forced.
Similarly, the cinematography by Aleksandr Mikeladze starts out very distinctive -- a series of hand-held shots statically framed, with the mise-en-scene being geometric to the point of neurosis, and a beautifully monotonous colour palette composed of various shades of muted blues -- but ends up becoming loose and unfocused as the story progresses.
All in all, Zoology's premise and opening is better than its execution and conclusion, but it is still worth checking out: while it's no masterpiece, it does have a certain charm about it.
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