Moved me to tears, against my expectation

Rating: 10/10 (4 January 2009)

I accompanied my mother into this apparently schlocky movie initially against my will. "She needs my company," I thought. Indeed, it opened with a deceptively calm veneer.
In short, however, there is little that warrants rebuke in this production. Violence is applied to the story very sparingly, and then only to illustrate its direction and purpose; there are no date-movie thrills herein. The characters are three-dimensional, though (sometimes bizarrely, given the chosen setting) voiced with the Estuary English of their portrayers, and sometimes less brutal than they might have actually been in 1940s Germany.
The fact that this film was *mildly* toned down is hardly a complaint, as I even found it difficult to watch at moments. During one especially important scene I even shed a few tears, and I'm hardly one to cry over a movie.
This is essentially a story of contrast between the purity of a child's heart and the grime introduced to it by the adult world. It is also a reminder that we who enjoy the freedom to live can never again allow this to happen. *Do not* bring young children to this one; it is more than intense.