Michael's Movie Grade: A-
A wonderful true-life story.
This film tells the true story of Irena Gut, a young woman, who while working as a housekeeper for a Nazi officer hides a group of Jewish people in the cellar. The movie understands the importance of this story in this or any other era. People like Irena deserve to be remembered and put down in history. While the world today often throws around a word like hero, this is a true hero. It also understands the importance of putting others in front of ourselves. When times get rough, and the world is filled with tragedy that is when egos need to disappear, and people need to put others in front of themselves. Yet the movie never preaches these messages to us but instead they all simply come out of the story and characters.
One of the best things about this movie is how it delves into what drives this young woman to make such incredible sacrifices. We see how she was horrified and shocked when she saw a Nazi officer kill an innocent mother and baby. However instead of letting this fear make her try to avoid or ignore the horrors in the world she lives in, it drives her to do something about it. Since we understand and can relate to what drives her, this makes us feel closer to her and admire her even more. Sophie Nélisse's (who as a child actress starred in a similar themed movie, The Book Thief (2013)) performance as the titular character is truly extraordinary. She has an incredible presence on screen that draws us to her but at the same time her performance is always real with a great subtlety in many scenes. Also great is Dougray Scott as the Nazi officer she is working for. This is a great character, who is not the over-the-top Nazi villain we are used to seeing. Instead, he is a man who would simply seem like a normal and even charming person, if it wasn't for his being a Nazi. This expresses perfectly what is so terrifying about such things as Nazism, that this pure evil belief can creep into even your average person. Scott's performance truly captures this, in an often subtle and powerful way.
Director Louise Archambault (a great Candian director for whom this is her first English Language theatrical film) also does a wonderful job creating suspense scenes. There are many moments here which truly keep you on the edge of your seat with their great suspense filmmaking. This and an intelligent script by Dan Gordon (Wyatt Earp (1994), The Hurricane (1999), Let There Be Light (2017), Rambo: Last Blood (2019)) help do justice to a great and inspiring true-life story.
A wonderful movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment