The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

This could have been ghastly: children + the Holocaust. I still shiver at the memory of the unspeakably awful Life is Beautiful. Fortunately this, for the most part, avoids the clutches of rampant sentimentality. The child actors are mostly competent, although Shmuel looks way too healthy for an inmate of a work camp. With those chipmunk cheeks he's clearly got a stash of food somewhere. It's even more jarring during the final sequences with adults who *do* look alarmingly thin. The best performance probably comes from Vera Farmiga as the mother who gradually becomes aware of just what her husband's new job truly entails and begins to unravel. While her daughter becomes increasing pro-Nazi, she finds herself increasingly at odds with those certainties. While she may view the Jews with disdain, the harsh treatment and cruelty they receive, even under her own roof, gradually prompts a more humane reaction. In the circumstances that is about as hopeful as it gets.