Tone deaf...

Rating: 4/10 (28 November 2019)

That perfectly describes the last 5 to 10 minutes of Jojo Rabbit-- up to and including its distasteful climax, which ruined what could've still been a good film. I say good, because I had a number of other issues with the movie.
It wasn't funny. It was a toothless satire. An ineffective critique of the Nazi's.
The heart of the film, and what saved it from being a complete disaster where the touching performances of Thomasin McKenzie as Elsa, the Jewish girl, and Scarlett Johansson as the mother of Roman Griffin Davis' title character Jojo. They were beautifully written and performed roles.
Taika Waititi did a good job shooting the film, as its lovely looking, and made for an amusing Hitler for the first 30 minutes, after which the novelty wore off and he was annoying. I also thought Rebel Wilson and Sam Rockwell had a few amusing comic moments. Overall, the film was at its best when Hitler wasn't on-screen and it wasn't trying so hard to be funny and "satirical." The drama was the real highlight. Too bad it ended up failing failing on that front.

(SPOILERS)

Jojo Rabbit could have had an ending that pulled the heart strings and sent an important message about facing the consequences of your actions and learning from your mistakes. Instead we got a triumph of the human spirit dance-off between a Hitler youth who hadn't yet lived down his mistakes and the Jewish girl who he lied to and held captive just because he felt some butterflies in his stomach and/or missed his mommy. Barf.

(MORE-SPOILERS)

Look: Elsa slapped him. Which was good!!! Because He deserved it. She should have left him too: A sad goodbye. Elsa's finally free. Jojo is again left alone and hurt, left to reflect on another valuable lesson. Does he learn and grow from his mistakes? The End.
How hard is that?
No human being would have ever just let the atrocities Elsa experienced roll off them like water off a ducks back. Again, there's some really good craft in this movie but it's torpedoed by some tone-deaf creative choices from its director.