I want the last two hours back please!

Rating: 1/10 (22 March 2009)

This is by far and away the worst film i have ever seen. I do not understand the point the filmmaker is trying to make. The acting from the adult actors was wooden and void of emotional content for most of the film (the last fifteen minutes was rather overdone, screaming is not acting...its screaming!). The child actors were a lot better than their adult counterparts, and for most of the film brought an amount of credibility to their roles that i must credit them with. That is the only praise i can give to this frankly awful, insensitive and crass film. So the film is not about good acting.
The historical value the film brings to the table is non-existent, it takes what we are all taught in school and exploits it to make a film about this black hole in human history. So its not a film about the history of the holocaust.
The film makes no sense. How does Bruno stay at the edge of a concentration camp, playing games (at one point he even throws a ball over the barbed wire fence) for at least 2 hours a day, without any single guard spotting him (there is a guard tower overlooking the spot). Shmuel has to take a long walk to the fence from where he is supposed to be, why hasn't anyone ever followed him or stopped him? At the end Bruno is treated like an ordinary prisoner whilst being herded into the "shower". Why hasn't anyone noticed his long hair, or his clean skin, or his full belly, or his healthy looking body? OK, so its not a film about truth or common sense.
The film is structured well, until the ending. I can just imagine the scene at the writer's house now. The writer sitting at his desk, about to write the ending to the most emotional and well written holocaust film since Schindlers list...and then his partner walks up to him, kisses him on the cheek and says "come to bed darling". The writer then proceeds to make the biggest mistake of his life, he writes the crass, insensitive and unfulfilling ending that eventually makes it into the film. There is no justice, no justification for the two hours of watching. There is no sadness in the ending, just anger. So its not a film about justice or sadness
This film is blunt and stunted. If La Vita E Bella is like a delicate instrument designed to invoke a powerful and provocative insight into the holocaust, The boy in the striped Pyjamas is like a fork. Used to stuff ones face with over-emotional dribble, it turns into a very insensitive and crass production, which leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.