A Triumph!

Rating: 9/10 (10 January 2020)

Jojo Rabbit: How to describe this film? A serious comedy infused with elements of fantasy? It will have you laughing but the chuckles will die in your throat as you observe the final weeks of the Third Reich in a German town. Pensioners and children are armed with panzerfausts and rifles, "traitors" are hanged, the Gestapo hunt Jews until the very end. These could be scenes from Downfall.
Ten year old Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) is an ardent member of the Hitler Youth who has an imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi). This comical Hitler hangs out with Jojo, encourages him in his efforts, comforts him when he is bullied at the Hitler Youth weekend camp. The camp is run by invalided Captain Klenzdorf (Sam Rockwell) along with his shell-shocked assistant Sub-Officer Finkel (Alfie Allen) and the crazed Fraulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson) who has borne 18 Aryan babies for the Reich, a great comic trio. The bullying is by teenage HY members though and Jojo suffers injuries from a premature grenade explosion.
Jojo's mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) appears to be a model Nazi but she is hiding a Jewish teenager, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie), and engaging in resistance activities. Jojo discovers Elsa's hiding place and at first his simple nazi ideology is to the fore but they gradually develop a tentative relationship. Elsa showing that she is no victim but someone whose people wrestled with angels and killed giants. Truly great performances by McKenzie and Davis.
The humour ranges from a Tommy Cooper style skit where Rosie plays two parts to Mel Brookes type humour: (i) his slapstick mode where the imaginary Hitler is hamming, recoiling from a wall in case Jews are hiding in it, (ii) the serious comedy of To Be Or Not To Be when Jojo must fool the Gestapo. But these comparisons don't take away from the genius of Waititi's script, timing and direction.
Writer/Director/Actor Taika Waititi has delivered a comic triumph which literally and metaphorically deposits the nazis in the dustbin of history. 9/10.