I told you, it's not a game; we just all have numbers

Rating: 7/10 (12 June 2010)

I haven't read the novel, nor did I know of it. When I first heard of this, I knew I would watch it. I honestly did want to like this. Let's start with a complaint I've heard; the children do not talk like adults. My guess is that whoever thinks they do is affected by the fact that they speak British, not American, English; yes, some of it is upper class and such, however, offspring of these people would be using those words. As Ebert points out, it fits, it shows their level in society. I also want to say that the accuracy(the lack of German language notwithstanding), is impressive(other than the outspoken mother... not after '34). Before, I believed that the music early on was not the sort that would be heard there, but I asked my father who's an expert on the subject, and he confirmed that it could and would. This tries to cram in a lot of information about the Nazis and their propaganda; I couldn't help notice how awkwardly shoe-horned in a lot of it was. The feminism is downright misplaced; there was still only a little support for equal rights for the genders in the rest of the Western world around the 1940's. Most of what this tells us is true, though; the issue is that the thing is not long enough for it to come naturally. In general, this doesn't seem to realize that it's a mere 90 minutes, only the last twenty of which are all that engaging. I can't claim that this really captured me. The kids, for how well-behaved they can be, are annoying(you need to sell me on why I'm meant to care about these people, regardless of age). It's not their perspective that bothers me; I *love* Let The Right One In. The bonding footage is oddly placed late in this. Bruno isn't that appealing, both as a character and based on the actor. The performances are good. Editing and cinematography are nice. The writing varies... is it just me, or are these people kinda stupid? Take the dinner scene, for example. There is brief and intense disturbing content(and an underlying tone of it in other portions), and instant nudity in this. The DVD comes with an interesting commentary track by the writer, author and director, a featurette that I will review on its own page here on the site, and 6 minutes of deleted scenes with the option of hearing the thoughts on them. I recommend this to those who want to catch every well-made movie about the Holocaust. 7/10