Boy in The Striped Pajamas

Rating: 5/10 (28 June 2010)

"Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows." -John Betjeman.
Based off the bestselling novel by John Boyne, "The Boy in The Striped Pajamas" takes place in Germany during the horrifying times of World War II. We're introduced to the film with a clever quote (seen above) from the English poet John Betjeman; one that roots itself well with the perspective of the movie's lead character, Bruno. The story centers around Bruno (Asa Butterfield), his mother Elsa (Vera Farmiga) and eldest sister Gretel (Amber Beattie) who have recently relocated to the countryside of Berlin due to his father, who stays nameless (David Thewlis), gaining a hefty promotion within the ranks of the SS. Almost from the get-go we learn that Father's promotion is that of leading officer to a nearby, small scale, concentration camp. Bruno manages to sneak off periodically to visit a young boy named Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), eventually befriending him.
Let's get some of the really negative points out of the way first. Something that bothered me from the very beginning is that the film's entirely based in Germany but all the actors are British and do nothing to hide their accents. To some it may be a minute detail but if you're trying to become emotionally involved with the story and characters it's very difficult when you keep hearing English accents, yet your brain is consistently reminded "This is based in Germany. This is based in Germany." Another film that became heavily burdened with this break in consistency is "Valkyrie". Time and time again it's shown that if you're going to have your movie based in a country where there are distinct accents or languages, you need to have your actors imitate those traits.
Alongside the lack of consistency with the character's accents there's also a lack of consistency with the character development. The writing isn't terrible by a long shot but it doesn't get you as involved emotionally as you should, considering the topic of the movie. I understood what the director was going for; trying to get the audience to see the film in the way that Bruno saw every day life, through the eyes of a child and without reason being a form of bias. The issue here is the movie almost seems to take this a step too far and decides to completely tear away any sort of in-depth character development. It's like they want you to view it in the way that Bruno would but at the same time there's all these other adult themed, unfinished side stories that start popping up and things just get a bit bouncy.
It's quite obvious throughout the film that the creators wanted you to care heavily for these characters and what happened to them but the flow of attention between each character became so wishy-washy that you didn't really feel connected to anyone. I have to say that while watching the entire film I really did feel like they were banking on the audience taking their already instilled emotions of the Holocaust and connecting them with the film as to avoid any emotional development. It's a tactic that doesn't sit right with me. You cannot take a well known, tragic event and simply use past knowledge of the tragedy to bubble up emotions. The story needs to be told as though nobody knew such a tragedy was a part of history.
Overall I struggled a lot with this movie because one of the aspects that I really enjoyed also heavily weighed down the storytelling. I'm referring to the unique way of the movie trying to emotionally capture a film through the eyes of a child. The film itself can also be beautiful to watch at times. It's well scored and there's some really attractive cinematography that highlights the beauty of Berlin, regardless of the sad note the movie plays on. At the same time nothing really jumps out and grabs a hold of you at any point. The acting isn't anything to get ecstatic over, though I did really enjoy the performance from Vera Farmiga's character. Something just felt like it was missing from beginning to finish. Even the extremely devastating ending didn't warrant a single tear from me because the ride up until this point was emotionally bland. It's one of those films that I watch and become convinced that the only reason there's any serious hype over it is due to fans of the book or because it's a Holocaust movie and that gains a lot of sympathy points. I don't hate it but I don't love it either. It's worth a Netflix rental but nothing more.