Contrived concentration-camp fable, from the novel by John Boyne, about the budding friendship, through barbed wire, between the eight-year-old Aryan son of the camp commandant (in his innocence, he thinks it’s a farm) and a same-aged, shaved-headed Jew. It roughly recalls Life Is Beautiful in its mixture, or collision, of sticky sentiment and gorgeous cinematography (Benoit Delhomme, in this case). The resolution, whether because it is signalled too far ahead and dragged out too long or because its tragedy is leavened with undeniable justice, shapes up as profoundly unmoving. With Asa Butterfield, Vera Farmiga, Davis Thewlis, and Zac Mattoon O’Brien; written and directed by Mark Herman. (2008) — Duncan Shepherd
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