Beyond the Suspension of Disbelief

Rating: 3/10 (28 November 2017)

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is perhaps a decent movie for general audiences with limited exposure to films more substantial than Hollywood's common and lighthearted blockbusters, but I feel it does not have the true depth it is sometimes credited as having. Now, I don't mean to demean anyone who had a powerful experience in viewing this film- it's good for people to have their minds stirred to the tragedies of the past who may or may not otherwise, and the movie has proved effective in bringing its viewers to tears, no doubt, but only through juvenile methods of storytelling.
The issue lies in its framework. It attempts to confront a delicately heavy subject, the Holocaust (which is automatically something that should tug at one's heartstrings for obvious reasons). But it doesn't do it in an authentic manner: it stretches the historical events around its plot, instead of the other way around as it should. I needn't go into the details as one can find them with a quick internet search, but the historical inaccuracies are downright blatant- yet integral to the plot.
I understand the concept of "the suspension of disbelief" when approaching fiction (and even historical fiction), but the story has to work by the rules that it sets forth. A comparison I will give is Life is Beautiful, another Holocaust film that stretched the truth: however, the world that movie had established was one of hi-jinks and coincidence, and therefore the minor historical liberties it takes are forgivable because the viewer ought not take it at face value. In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, though, the story is presented as true-to-life, and therefore has a responsibility to neither mislead its viewership nor insult their intelligence, which is exactly what it does.
Because of this, it doesn't come across as authentic- not only by its historical falsities, but also in its far-fetched unfoldings of its plot, and in the flat traits and utter obliviousness of main characters. Many an audience can look past these shortcomings, it seems, but I found it to be insufferably jarring to the viewer experience, and the ending felt contrived and shallow as a result.