
Max
Wrt./Dir. Menno Meyjes
Str. John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski
Opens December 27th
Hitler Was A Teenage Art Fag
There
is an outrage over Max that I can almost understand. Of
all the touchy subjects in history, Adolph Hitler is right
up there towering over Caligula, Regan, and even George
Lucas for crimes against humanity and its notion of decent
behavior. But, the film asks, what if Hitler (Taylor) had
found a mentor (Cusack in the Titular role) to help him
with his struggling career as a painter and artist? What
kind of man would he have been to teach? What kind of man
would the mentor have been? Could the atrocities have been
averted? Would Hitler have ever gotten laid?
What people seem so upset about is the idea that anyone
would portray Hitler as human. They say this portrayal will
soften his image, make him less monstrous. I think there
is something scary about this point of view. The fact of
the matter is Hitler was actually human (trust me, I've
seen pictures and he's got the requisite number of fingers
and ears), and I think it's this that people are refusing
to admit. There are those who seem to believe that he was
a monster (like literally an aberration of nature cast from
a demonic mold) rather than a lunatic of epic proportions;
what scares me about this view is that if Hitler is seen
as something so paranormal then it makes him likewise unique;
nothing like Hitler could ever happen again because Hitler
was a singularity. And that is a very terrifying notion.
Reminiscent of the fervor over The Last Temptation of Christ,
people have become outraged from something they have never
seen. Max might produce a Hitler who is a real live human
being, but that doesn't mean that he's likeable. According
to Max, Hitler was an asshole long before he was a Nazi
and running along side his climb into politics is a mania
that would, these days, require daily doses of Thorazine,
lithium, and probably some paxil for good measure. Max does
not glorify Hitler; it will not endear him to the people
or forgive him any of his acts. Max will, however, do something
that no one has done before: it will turn Hitler in to something
one can comprehend.
Pros:
There is some very well placed humor through out Max. Hitler
isn't just an asshole, he's not just insane, he is also
extremely laughable; Hitler's Mentor, Max Rothman, is appalled
by his view points, but finds the dictator in training so
absurd that he becomes more a source of amusement than any
viable threat. Cusack, himself, has several witty jokes
and left handed comments that are the staple of the John
Malkovich wannabe. Meyjes carries this absurdity throughout
the movie and there is a constant presence of simple dumb
luck aiding the rise of Hitler.
Coincidence is ever present. It helps to bolster the idea
that Max is not an historical drama depicting events as
they happened, but rather a fable which pulls various threads
of truth from across the board and weaves them into a tale
which, if you recall any of the Brothers Grim, is not really
that much more depressing than the what we heard as children.
Everything or nothing might be true, that is one of the
aspects to the film that makes it work so well. The audience
suspends its disbelief on a very deep level.
Technically, Max borders on perfection. The acting, the
directing, the sets and costumes have all been carefully
cast. The cinematography sets the atmosphere artfully. Movies
that involve two characters of vastly differing classes
and social strata generally paint the posh in a very different
light than the poor. In Max, however, while there are obvious
differences between Rothman's townhouse and Hitler's barracks,
both are filmed with the same stark tone. It is obvious,
via the cinematography, that while these two men are separated
by money they occupy the same world and the future of each
is quite bleak.
The writing, especially the dialogues between Max and Hitler,
is very well done. There is a great amount of expounding
on the nature of art, and what it is to paint, and how painful
the whole mess is, and how fabulous so-and-so was and "Look
at me, I went to Art School!" But there is not so much
that it becomes arduous; these conversations feel justified
and not at all out of place. There is a deep philosophy
to Max and Hitler's relationship, they are not really friends
per-se, Rothman says many times that he does not much like
the man, but rather pities him, or finds him mildly entertaining.
The Cons
There isn't much that's bad about Max at all... well aside
from the thousands of protests and piles of hate mail saying
all those involved with the production are evil, evil, evil,
bad, bad men. Still, nothing is without its faults. The
pace of the movie is a little jerky at the beginning and
you wonder what, exactly, they're trying to do. It finds
its tempo quickly, however and falls into a nice saunter.
The accents, my God! The accents! Cusack, thankfully, refuses
to even attempt anything approaching a German accent, sticking
with the same old voice we all know and love. Taylor wrangles
his treble into something that might sound like Germen if
you were, say, underwater and deaf, but it occasionally
slips away and you hear a little of the Australian mate
in him. And then there's the bit casting where all of the
Jewish characters decide to use British accents, and all
of the Aryans opt for that staple of stage, The Colonel
Klink.
The relationship between Max and his wife is virtually
non-existent. This is all by design, leaving Max free to
cavort guiltlessly with the lovely, deep voiced Liselore
Von Peltz (Sobieski); although you do wonder what service
the wife does the movie at all.
Ratings
Humor: Two-and-a-half Seinfelds, Only With Good Timing
Without the tidbits of dry wit and Cusack-esque bites, Max
would be mired in its history and drama. This movie is almost
as entertaining as it is good, a rarity among Oscar season
flicks.
Last Shot: Four Bleak Visions of the World To Come
Max takes the cake for the best final shot of any movie
in a nice long time. It manages to sum up every theme presented
throughout the movie beautifully. I can still picture it
and it still gives me goose bumps.
Overall: Three-and-a-half Bad, Bad, Bad, Evil, Evil
Hipsters
Easily one of the most solid films produced this year.
--B.C. Edwards
carter@freewilliamsburg.com
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