Bitter-sweet tale of a young boy letting go of his prejudices

Rating: 8/10 (3 January 2020)

You have to hand it to Taika Waititi. It is a brave director who uses Adolf Hitler (albeit an imaginary one) and his Nazi sympathizers in a satire condemning war. There is so much potential for things to go wrong.
I had seen a review of this movie on TV and was under the impression that this was a laugh-a-minute comedy that would have me chuckling non-stop, in the vein of Waititi's earlier movie Hunt for the Wilder People. So, I was disappointed to realise early on that this was not nearly as humorous as I anticipated. It was certainly quirky and did make me smile, but there was not the broad vein of comedy that I expected. But then, completely unexpectedly and without me realizing it, this movie opened out and blossomed into a truly lovely story of a young boy confronting the prejudices that society had taught him, seeing them for the falsehoods they are and learning acceptance and love. It is poignant, it is clever, gently funny and it is effective. It isn't a movie about the folly of war after all, but about the folly of ignorance, discrimination, racism and prejudice.
The movie boasts a fine cast. Scarlett Johansson is a revelation as the title character's mother. Sam Rockwell is always good and he is good here. I didn't recognise Alfie Allen in his roll as Finkel but he is good too. Archie Yates is funny as JoJo's mate Yorki, Stephen Merchant is great in a brief role as the slimy and scary Gestapo officer. Rebel Wilson shows, as she has in many of her movies, that she can't act and isn't really very funny either. Taika Waititi himself takes on the role of the imaginary Adolf Hitler. I'm not sure if that was a good decision, but I can live with it. Thomasin McKenzie is lovely, fragile and powerful as Elsa. The highest praise though must go to Roman Griffin Davis in what I believe is his first movie. Where did they find him? He is absolutely brilliant in the title role of JoJo. He carries the movie and shines brightly even among the other luminaries in the cast. This kid can act. He is a natural comedian and gets the broad strokes and subtle nuances just right to make us believe and fall in love with little JoJo. I see a big future in store for this kid if he chooses to stay in the movie industry.
The reviewer I saw on TV labelled JoJo Rabbit one of the best movies of the year (2019). I think he was correct.