Jo Jo Rabbit. (15.)
Directed by Taika Waititi.
Starring Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Taika Waititi, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Rebel Wilson. 108 mins.
“Well, talk about bad taste.” The Hitler comedy - from The Producers to Heil Honey I'm Home - is always contentious and JJ Wabbit, the tale of a 10-year-old boy (Davis) trying to negotiate his way through the last days of the Second World War with the help of his imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler, is potentially the most contentious of all.
This is a Taika Waititi film, written and directed, and if there is a defining feature of a Waititi film it is that he will cast himself in the best role; not usually the largest, but the one with the biggest laughs. So he's Hitler, the role that sets the tone for this cheerfully anachronistic version of life under the Third Reich. Actors do only the vaguest attempts at the accent and the dialogue is full of contemporary phrases. It's like a Will Ferrell version of Allo Allo. By contrast, the physical recreation of Nazi Germany is done absolutely straight, with all the signage written in German. As a result, the film is like watching people mucking around on the set of The Pianist after the proper filmmakers had packed up and gone home for the day.
And for fifteen to twenty minutes it is a jawdropping riot. The sequence at the Hitler Youth camping trip with Imaginary Hitler talking up young Rabbit to do well is so out there, so wild, it might almost be some mass delusion; are we really seeing Rebel Wilson and Sam Rockwell camp it up in Nazi uniforms to the soundtrack of a German-language version of the Beatles I Wanna Hold Your Hand?
But after its delirious opening, it seems like the film itself suddenly catches itself in the mirror and realises it can't get away with this for much longer and decides to pull itself together. Jojo discovers that his mother (Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl (McKenzie) in her attic and the film accepts that the game is up. Putting an Anne Frank figure into the story means there is only so much larking about it can get away with from now on.
The film is very good at replicating a child's partial view of the world. You might consider it as a riff on Life Is Beautiful: but rather than the father it is the child generating a fantasy version of Nazism to provide a comforting shield from the brutal reality. For me, the film fails to live up to its early promise and doesn't ever really make clear what it is trying to achieve. It does though land a blissful ending, with an obvious, but perfect musical choice (spoilt by the trailers) that means you leave the theatre feeling upbeat.
Directed by Taika Waititi.
Starring Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Taika Waititi, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Rebel Wilson. 108 mins.
“Well, talk about bad taste.” The Hitler comedy - from The Producers to Heil Honey I'm Home - is always contentious and JJ Wabbit, the tale of a 10-year-old boy (Davis) trying to negotiate his way through the last days of the Second World War with the help of his imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler, is potentially the most contentious of all.
This is a Taika Waititi film, written and directed, and if there is a defining feature of a Waititi film it is that he will cast himself in the best role; not usually the largest, but the one with the biggest laughs. So he's Hitler, the role that sets the tone for this cheerfully anachronistic version of life under the Third Reich. Actors do only the vaguest attempts at the accent and the dialogue is full of contemporary phrases. It's like a Will Ferrell version of Allo Allo. By contrast, the physical recreation of Nazi Germany is done absolutely straight, with all the signage written in German. As a result, the film is like watching people mucking around on the set of The Pianist after the proper filmmakers had packed up and gone home for the day.
And for fifteen to twenty minutes it is a jawdropping riot. The sequence at the Hitler Youth camping trip with Imaginary Hitler talking up young Rabbit to do well is so out there, so wild, it might almost be some mass delusion; are we really seeing Rebel Wilson and Sam Rockwell camp it up in Nazi uniforms to the soundtrack of a German-language version of the Beatles I Wanna Hold Your Hand?
But after its delirious opening, it seems like the film itself suddenly catches itself in the mirror and realises it can't get away with this for much longer and decides to pull itself together. Jojo discovers that his mother (Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl (McKenzie) in her attic and the film accepts that the game is up. Putting an Anne Frank figure into the story means there is only so much larking about it can get away with from now on.
The film is very good at replicating a child's partial view of the world. You might consider it as a riff on Life Is Beautiful: but rather than the father it is the child generating a fantasy version of Nazism to provide a comforting shield from the brutal reality. For me, the film fails to live up to its early promise and doesn't ever really make clear what it is trying to achieve. It does though land a blissful ending, with an obvious, but perfect musical choice (spoilt by the trailers) that means you leave the theatre feeling upbeat.
