The worst movie of the year

Rating: 3/10 (26 February 2010)

Director Mark Herman was clearly off his game with the release of "The Boy In The Striped Pajamas". After falling in love with the amazing novel by John Bayne, we were awaiting the chance to see this masterpiece come to life on the big screen, but to our surprise the brutality, emotion and realism of the novel and the Holocaust were forgotten in the making of this production.
Starting out on to the poorly re-created concentration camp, Bruno(Asa Butterfield) played an ignorant 8 year old looking for a new friend. He stumbled upon Shmuel(Jack Scanlon) a young Jewish boy separated by the Nazi soldiers. Throughout the film, their "friendship" seems to grow, while Bruno remains completely oblivious to the tragic events taking place around him. As the story deepens, the action was minimal, and the whole story seemed built up around Bruno's boredom, and his mother's(Vera Famiga) fight to go back home with Bruno and his sister Gretel(Amber Beathe).
Only to add to the disappointment of this movie, certain characters were poorly cast (Germans with English accent). Bruno's supposed terrifying father/commandant(David Thewlis) was nothing more than your average caring father. one would presume, and the novel certainly portrays that a Nazi commandant would be far more intimidating and aggressive. On the other hand, the cast was well chosen when they decided to portray Bruno's mother. Ther emotion and despair during this movie, especially when she learns of the purpose of the camp, was a breath of fresh air compared to others. Lieutement Kotler(Rupert Friend) and the poor Jewish cook Pavel(David Hayman) definitely brought a new feeling to the movie especially in the dinner scene.
For such an intriguing storyline, the movie could have been made into a much more interesting experience for the general movie viewer. For a PG-13 movie, it was locking the details behind the Holocaust and the pain and suffering that the Jewish prisoners went through. All the elements from the novel that created such an amazing story were left in the pages of the book and not portrayed on screen. The setting, which was supposed to resemble a gruesome concentration camp similar to Aushwitz, was nothing more than your typical farm, which leaves the viewer emotionless to the realities of the Holocaust. Apart from the setting being poorly constructed, the bond between Bruno and Shmuel was looking almost entirely as the two boys were rarely seen together, which again disappoints the audience and disconnects them from the impact the film intended to create.
Over all, 3 stars is the most we could give this film. The lack of emotions, gruesome details, the terrible setting, and rather disappointing acting, combine to make this film quite dull and unappealing. Potentially, audience members who have not had the privilege of reading John Bayne's novel, may enjoy the film. However, the farm like setting and unmoving character development is enough to even detract these viewers. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was better left on pages.