The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, and Asa Butterfield star in Little Voice writer/director Mark Herman's adaptation of John Boyne's novel concerning the forbidden friendship that between an eight-year-old German boy and a Jewish concentration camp prisoner in World War II-era Germany. The innocent son of ...more

Mark Herman’s adaptation of John Boyne’s eponymous novel is an interesting, if heavy-handed exploration of the Holocaust as experienced through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy, Bruno. It is undoubtedly flawed, hinging too much on overwhelming contrasts, a somewhat trite utilization of visual symbolism, and a rather high expectation for one’s extended suspension of disbelief. Nonetheless, the film ultimately succeeds in eliciting a very raw, inescapable, and emotional response. Young Bruno ...more

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas marks one of the most unsettling films to emerge in quite some time. Certainly that response might seem appropriate for any film that pertains thematically to a subject as emotionally challenging as the Holocaust, but writer-director Mark Herman's fictional story -- adapted from John Boyne's 2005 novel of the same name -- feels uncomfortable in an ill-advised way. A treatment of Holocaust-related discoveries shot through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy, it ...more