Shoehorning the movie to fit the ending

Rating: 2/10 (8 February 2016)

An 8 year-old son of a high Nazi commander befriends a Jewish death camp prisoner, also an 8 year-old boy. So far so good.
This movie is plain bad on a number of different levels. However, the most fundamental flaw is that the creators must have thought of a seemingly ironic and tragic ending, and then tried to fit the movie to that ending. Everything in that movie is just a vacuous filler to get to the last 5 minutes.
Nothing in this film justifies its overwrought, melodramatic ending. The story is flat and shallow and pretty dull. The acting is mediocre. The cinematography is repetitive and doesn't fit the subject matter. Perhaps, it intended to give this movie a meditative, surreal, fairy tale feel, in which case it came nowhere near its goal.
It is possible to forgive some departures from the strict historical narrative provided that there's a solid, logical framework. In other words, we can suspend our disbelief at some of the events, provided that the core of the story is consistent and logical. This movie lacks such a framework. The relationship between the two boys never rings true. It can't. An obvious question arises: how do the two boys communicate, since in all likelihood the Jewish boy is from Eastern Europe; the movie seems to imply that the two boys come from different countries. It would have been very hard to build a relationship absent the ability to communicate. Or it would take a much better film. But even if you gloss over the language barrier, their relationship is still very superficial and lacks tension. Oh, true, there's betrayal by the German boy. Quickly forgiven though. Life is crappy anyway, so why fret about a little betrayal.
Ironically enough, there are a couple of sub-plots -- the boys's brief relationship with a prisoner who works in the house; as well as his mother's horror when she finds out what her husband participates in -- that could have made for a decent movie. Nay! The "horrible" ending had to be attained, so full steam ahead.
I will not give away the ending. However, after seeing this movie, ask yourself this: would it have been less sad had the ending been different? It would have been...and that's just plain wrong.