In the end, a success - a terribly moving one

Rating: Null/10 (12 January 2011)

The Holocaust is always a hugely sensitive topic for storytelling, even more so when the perspective is that of a child. It was done successfully, if unconventionally, with the Italian work "Life Is Sweet". In this case, the source material is a novel by Irish writer John Boyne which has been adapted for the screen and directed by the British Mark Herman.
For much of the time, one is not sure if this is going to work. All the characters speak with middle-class English accents, including Vera Farmiga who is American, which hardly aids authenticity. Then the central proposition - that the eight year old son (Asa Butterfield) of a German commandant of a concentration camp (David Thewlis) could befriend an inmate of the same age (Jack Scanlon) and not understand anything of what was going on - seems preposterous.
Of course, fiction is allowed to depart from reality to examine a central truth and therefore the conclusion of this tale is critical and it is the moving finale that ultimately makes this an acceptable and instructive piece of filmmaking.