Manipulative in the extreme

Rating: 4/10 (28 January 2013)

I had high hopes for THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS, a WW2 drama about a German lad who (somewhat unbelievably) ends up befriending a young Jewish boy in a concentration camp. Sadly, I found the whole experience to be artificial and manipulative in the extreme, an exercise in tugging at the viewers' heartstrings and nothing more.
Despite strong performances from the two child actors, most things about the production feel hollow. You can pretty much guess where it's going from the outset, and each unbelievable scene is a step closer to that inevitable outcome. There's a kind of subtle, mawkish sentimentality hanging over the whole production that ended up spoiling the experience for me. I didn't care for the characters at all, particularly Bruno, who seemed a selfish, spoilt little brat throughout.
It doesn't help that David Thewlis and Vera Farmiga both give unsatisfying performances that feel staged and self-conscious. But the real problem is that ending, which deliberately goes out of its way to push the viewer where it wants them to go emotionally, while at the same time trivialising an entire part of history.