Well-meaning but dubiously probable...

Rating: 6/10 (2 January 2010)

...and very, very O. Henry-esquire tale of innocence paying a blood debt for incalculable evil, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is nonetheless a minor Holocaust film worth at least a viewing. Adapted for film and helmed by British director, Mark "Brassed Off" Herman, from an Irish novel for young adults, "The Boy..." tells the story of a stunningly naive German boy, Bruno, who befriends a Jewish peer, an inmate of the concentration camp run by Bruno's father, an SS officer. Themes of trust, friendship, and willing complicity in evil doings are explored as things move toward a somewhat telegraphed and highly unlikely conclusion.
Beyond nicely realized performances by the "name" actors headlining the cast--Vera "The Orphan" Farmiga, David "Harry Potter and..." Thewlis, and Rupert "The Young Victoria" Friend--the real leads, children both, are quite effective, which is good, because the success of the film truly rests on their chemistry. Asa "Son of Rambow" Butterfield and newcomer Jack Scanlon draw the viewer into their unusual relationship and tragic adventure with effortless grace; they could both well be young actors worth keeping tabs on. No, there's no complaint in the acting, nor in most of the relatively low-budget production values. Shot in Hungary, "The Boy..." manages a nice period veneer on an otherwise most improbable dramatic hook, line, and sinker. The film suffers from plotting anomalies and some far-fetched dramatic assumptions.
I'll be blunt: the young son of an SS officer in WWII Germany simply could not have been as sheltered and ingenuous as the film's protagonist; it beggars willing suspension of disbelief, or at least it does mine. And the scenario of two little boys on opposite sides of a barbed wire fence surrounding a concentration camp, though emotionally and visually arresting, borders on the definition of preposterous. Perhaps this is all explained away in the source novel; perhaps not. The film makes no attempt, and perhaps purposefully so. For me, it didn't work.
As I said, though, still worth a watch if you're in the mood for that sort of overt manipulation. The ending is almost "Twilight Zone"-ish in its melodramatic tragedy, and left this viewer feeling that he'd been cheated of a resolution more in keeping with the prior tone and perspective of the story.