Like a Child: A review of ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’

When Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3), He was addressing a very real change that occurs as a person gets older—they grow more calloused and cynical. The heart of a child can hardly process, let alone make excuses, for the evil hiding in the hearts of adults.

           

 It’s that evil and innocent contrast that’s explored in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a new period film set in Germany during the Holocaust. Bruno (Asa Butterfield) is the 8 year-old son of a Nazi commander (David Thewliss) whose life is uprooted when his father is assigned to Auschwitz.

The audience sees through Bruno’s inquisitive eyes, picking out a room in the new house and exploring the grounds looking for a friend. He eventually finds that friend in a boy, Shmuel, who he believes is living on a farm through the woods and, like the other “farmers,” walks around in striped pajamas.

 

The friendship of the two boys is, of course, central to the film. Bruno and Shmuel sit on opposite sides of a barbwire fence talking, passing a ball and eating lunch together. The real reason for Shmuel’s presence and clothing, however, is largely kept from Bruno, although the truth eats away at his mother, played to perfection by Vera Farmiga (The Departed).

           

With a Holocaust-themed film, there are so many emotions brought to the table even before the movie logo appears that a box of Kleenex is pretty much a given. For some reason, however, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas failed to seal the deal. Perhaps it was that expectation or even the shadow of superior dramas like Schindler’s List looming over it or an ending a blind man could see coming a mile away.

           

Still, the film was not without its merits. It’s very well made and Farmiga serves up a sympathetic mother trying to hide her heartbreak and disgust from her children.