Movie review: “The Boy in Striped Pajamas”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. 3 1/2 of 4 stars.
Nazi horror seen from child’s view
To call writer-director Mark Herman’s “The Boy in Striped Pajamas” a heartbreaking powerhouse film is a woeful understatement.
His subtle, intimate period drama freezes the blood and stops the heart as it slams home the horrors of the Holocaust.
The secret of the film, an adaptation of Irish author’s John Boyne’s best-selling fable, is its unswerving devotion to exploring one of history’s darkest eras through the eyes of an innocent child. Herman maintains a laser-focus on Bruno (Asa Butterfield), the naïve and sheltered 8-year-old son of a Nazi officer (David Thewlis).
When his father gets a promotion, Bruno’s mother (Vera Farmiga) and 12-year-old sister Gretel (Amber Beattie) are overcome with pride. But Bruno is dismayed at the idea of leaving his friends and the comfort of 1940s Berlin for a new home in the country. (Unfortunately, everyone speaks in veddy British accents in the film’s 1940s Germany, distracting from the film’s realism.)
Moving into his room in the grimly institutional country house, Bruno spies through the window a strange “farm” where all the workers wear striped pajamas. His parents forbid him to play with the children there and even board up the window, but driven by acute boredom, the boy sneaks through the woods to the “farm.”
Through the towering electric fence, the privileged child befriends Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), a hungry, sad-eyed boy his age. Both are confused as to why Shmuel has been shipped to the bleak “farm” and where some of his friends and family have disappeared to. They just know it has something to do with the fact Shmuel is Jewish.
As their friendship grows, Bruno can’t reconcile the kindness of Shmuel and the Jewish kitchen helper Pavel (David Hayman) with his tutor’s (Jim Norton) vitriolic teachings about the Jews’ evil ways. While Gretel buys into the Nazi propaganda – and develops a crush on the handsome but cruel Lt. Kotler (Rupert Friend) – Bruno simply grows more confused.
When his mother accidentally discovers that the “farm” isn’t the work camp she believed but an extermination camp, her subsequent breakdown adds to Bruno’s dawning horror that his beloved father may not be a good guy but a monster.
The suspense builds with uncomfortable intensity: Will Bruno face the truth about his father or buy into the Nazi’s hateful principles? Will his desire to be with his friend drive him to somehow get across the fence, and what will happen if he does sneak into the camp?
Herman’s delicate direction keeps the movie from tripping up and becoming overly sentimental or ham-handed. He keeps Bruno’s naivete intact, letting the events of the story ultimately chip away at it.
By bringing their all-too-clear knowledge of what’s happening with them, the viewers naturally infuse the story with its emotional power, which makes Bruno’s tragic tale of innocence lost that much more resonant.
- BAM
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BRANDI