A good movie

At first, I wasn't really enthousiast about this flick. Indeed, it seemed to be rather oversentimental but since I kept hearing some good things about it, I thought I should check it out. Eventually, I have to admit that it was a really solid WWII drama. The best thing about it was the way they handled the main characters, the 2 kids. Indeed, it was never condescending and they never sounded smarter than they should be. Everything they said or did seemed pretty accurate and it made the whole thing even more heartbreaking. What a terrible ordeal it must have been being a 8 year old in such a terrible time and place... Still, the whole thing wasn't flawless though. First of all, during the first minutes, I thought for a while that the whole thing was actually taking place in England because of the heavy British accent but that was not a deal breaker. Eventually, I had more problem concerning the grown-up characters. Indeed, whereas the boys were very well written and fascinating to watch, the adults (nazis and jews) were all so stereotypical, it was rather disappointing. I mean, all the nazis were portrayed as some mad blood-thirsty psychopaths and the only jew was portrayed as a very kind man, almost like an angel. Of course, what happened to the Jews back then was absolutely terrible, the greatest tragedy in history but WWII movies always tend to be really black and white. Finally, the ending, though it was pretty intense, turned out to be rather annoying. Indeed, I had some issue concerning the pacing and timing. Basically, just before leaving the house for good, Bruno had enough time to go to the camp, dig a hole, switch clothes, visit the barracks and end up in the gas chamber. Then they finally discovered that he was gone only when it was too late and got to the gas chamber just 5 minutes later. Of course, it was some powerful stuff but it also felt really timed, fake and manipulative. Still, in spite of its flaws, it was a very sad and strong WWII drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.