yupaleus

I will get right to the 'riveting climax' of this movie. So don't read any further if you want to see it. This will contain spoilers. The child son of a Nazi war criminal (Bruno) befriends a child camp victim (Schmuel). The climax, Bruno (though uncorrupted by the teachings, and obviously a good soul) enters the camp to help Schmuel find his lost father, dressed as an incarcerated Jew. Wrong place and the wrong time, (not that it ever could be the right place), but Bruno and Schmuel enter a barrack of prisoners and are shuffled to the gas chamber and Bruno, Schmuel. In the meantime, the Nazi general father of Bruno realizes where his son is, and desperately but futilely enters the camp yelling for Bruno, in an attempt to save him.

I ask, of you, who are so filled with emotion...What if Bruno didn't die? Only Schmuel....would the movie been any less tragic? I found this movie unstirring, as if I should be more emotional that the child of a Nazi war criminal died an unlucky death in a matter of minutes, while Schmuel lived and suffered the horrors of the camp for years. If the message was a wakeup call to the Nazi father, i.e. how's it feel? Does aryan blood burn differently from Jew blood, a quote from the movie in fact....That might be an acceptable message. A taste of the Nazi's own medicine. But I don't think that was the message at all. It's a sad message if we are somehow meant to sympathize more for the child of a nazi war criminal than the millions of Jewish children who were incinerated, gassed and tortured. BAd movie, horrible that anyone could be stirred to emotion by this film.

This is a good suspenseful movie. I was left entrenched and also conflicted. Conflicted in that, I found myself vacillating among which protagonists I was routing to succeed through rigors of the 'experiment.' The movie also reminds me of the Michael Douglas movie the Game with a government espionage twist to it. As the experiment is alluded to be one of a test of apoptosis, Not sure if it's quite apoptosis in this context as apoptosis is programmed cell death, but I like the attempt at a scientific angle.

Overall, a suspenseful, interesting movie, that makes you think, what would I do if I were in the same situation. Most likely be in the 19/20 group of people.

Great performances in this hidden gem by Turturro and Rockwell. One message I loved in this movie is that magic can be captured in the most unexpected places. This perhaps comes out most prominently in the final scenes, where Al is leaving Bucky. The scene takes us in a panoramic view of Bucky's residence underscored by the emphatic guitar introduction to 'Blues before Sunrise.' We then are reminded that the place where Al has found himself, beauty, and friendship is a dilapidated mobile home, littered with what on first sight might appear as a junk pile--but in fact this place is truly something magical. The movie brilliantly reveals that a box of moonlight can be captured in the most unexpected places and circumstances and with the most unexpected people. Break down the walls of conditioning that tell you what is right and wrong, beautiful and ugly, and you too will capture a little moonlight in a box.