The shtick doesn't hold up

Rating: 6/10 (25 February 2020)

I am really struggling to understand just where director/writer Taika Waititi was going with this movie. It is obviously anti-hate, anti-racism--duh, but its bursty pace makes any idea it might try to present lost up in the air. He got the people, he supposedly got the vision and know, he has kinda executed it.
The movie takes place in the final days of World War II--the point where the German people have realized the insanity of Hitler's ridiculous delusions of grandeur. They know their end is approaching but they also know the realization they came to, they came to it too late. Few men are still carrying the indoctrination in their head. Among them, 9-year old boy Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), whose grasp on politics is, obviously, benign. His "hatred" towards Jews is summed up in fantastical elements, the regime infecting the young kids' minds by telling them stuff like the Jews have horns and the Devil controls their minds. Kids fell easy to fascination, but it got me thinking, in 1939, an entire nation did too. So, of course, when Jojo finds out his mother, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) inside their home, he gets jumpy.
Elsa sees him for the innocent and corrupted-minded boy he is and, eventually, the two grow to be friends--no spoiler alert, come on, it's obvious! The idea of unity here is well-defined but Waititi resolves to some annoying shticks to get it done. For instance, he plays Adolf Hitler--not the actual Adolf Hitler but Jojo's choice for an imaginary friend. He often appears to Jojo and acts in a boyish manner. The surreal representation is cool at first but as it goes on, it starts to become pointless and its shtick wears thin. Happily, it's over before it becomes cringeworthy and is, nonetheless, an interesting exercise in screenwriting.
More heartwarming supporting characters arise in the form of Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell) tasked with preparing the city for imminent invasion. He looks like he fights a losing fight and he knows it, but he keeps his chin up. The ending is fitting and expected, even if it doesn't define much which hasn't already been defined in this movie. To me, the only explanation to the weird pace and dreamy representation of the ending battle is that Waititi shows this movie through the eyes of children--unable to fully grasp and comprehend its entirety so neither do we, watching.