BEFORE: Linking from "Cloud Atlas", Halle Berry was also in "X-Men" with Ian McKellen. This will be important tomorrow.
AFTER: This is one of those "battle of wits" films, because not much action takes place, but the high-school student and the ex-Nazi take turns getting the upper hand, and this continues throughout the film, with the stakes raising until the game is over.
I'm not sure I bought into some of the concepts, namely that a teen could recognize an ex-Nazi from 50-year old photos. Or the unlikely coincidence that he'd just happen to have access to the photo of the exact Nazi who's living in his town. For that matter, how did he first KNOW that the old man on the bus was an ex-Nazi - it couldn't just be from the similarity to an old photo, could it? Because people's faces do tend to change over the course of 5 decades.
Also, would forcing a war criminal to talk about what took place during World War II assuredly re-awaken in him the desire/need to kill? I'm not sure that this is a completely logical progression. If you believe that such a person would be trying his best to forget what happened, this would include giving in to such urges. (Now, equating the horrors of high-school gym class with the showers at concentration camps, THAT I can get behind...)
I just read the plot of the Stephen King short story this was based on, and there are some key differences (especially the ending). However, I can see why the filmmaker made the choices that he did in altering the plot points. In a way, less is more, and I think some plotholes were covered over, but unfortunately a few new ones were made at the same time.
NITPICK POINT: The grades of the lead character dip, affected either by his fascination with Nazi culture or due to all the time he spends listening to war stories - and then once he's blackmailed into studying (that's a weird message to send out to the kids), he ends up as class valedictorian. Perhaps this was a very small graduating class, but in the high school I went to, if you got a single "B" instead of an "A", you'd be out of the running for valedictorian. There's an attempt to explain this with the guidance counselor offering to talk to his teachers about discounting his midterm grades, but I still think this would be a case of "too little, too late". By the time you get your 2nd semester grades, aren't they part of your permanent record?
I had a variation on my recurring high-school dream after watching this - sometimes watching a film set in a school drags up long-buried memories of my own. This one was a bit different, however - in the dream I went back to my old school, and even though they'd almost completely rebuilt the place since I attended, I still knew how to sneak backstage while rehearsals for a class musical were taking place. (For some reason, the part of the drama teacher/lead actor was played by Denis Leary) Some kid came on stage with a giant pet rat he had brought from home, and this brought the production to a halt. I stepped out of the wings, picked up the rodent and brought it to a seat in the audience, allowing the rehearsal to continue. For the next few hours I bounced around backstage, solving problems with various costumes and props, and I found that my experiences as a film producer all came in extremely handy when fixing things on the fly, and afterward Denis Leary wanted to shake my hand and thank me for saving the play.
From here on, I can sort of coast into Comic-Con - I saved up some extra films during the last couple of months, so now I only need to watch 1 new film in the next four days. This frees my mind up to concentrate on packing my luggage and making sure I've got all my paperwork in order.
Also starring Brad Renfro, Joshua Jackson (last seen in "The Mighty Ducks"), David Schwimmer (last seen in "Madagascar 3"), Bruce Davison (last seen in "Six Degrees of Separation"), Elias Koteas (last seen in "The Thin Red Line"), Joe Morton, Ann Dowd (last seen in "Compliance")
RATING: 4 out of 10 swastikas
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