Deeply flawed, inferior to many others

Rating: 3/10 (9 January 2012)

Choosing only English-speaking actors and having them speak with almost Received Pronunciation was a baffling decision. Films about WWII in the last decade or so have almost entirely opted to use actors speaking the correct language. I am aware this film was partly for children, but they can read too. Even an attempt at German or Eastern European accents would have been better.
For most of the film, the light, unchallenging tone makes it appear to be Enid Blyton's 'Five Go to Death Camp'. Before the final scene, we see no guards; the watchtowers appear to be empty; the forced labour in the camp is so slow that a half-built shed never gets any further throughout the film; the security perimeter is so easy to penetrate that a small boy can dig under it without anyone noticing; both boys meet many times, also with no consequences for the inmate; the ridiculous coincidence that the day Bruno enters the camp is the same one his friend is due to be killed; Bruno and his (apparently) Eastern European friend have no language difficulties; the whole message of the film appears to be that killing one blue-eyed German child was far worse than a whole shed full of Jews...
There are much better films about this.