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| Taika Waititi and Roman Griffin Davis in Jojo Rabbit. Image courtesy Fox Searchlight. |
Jojo
Rabbit is
a mess, albeit a mess made with affection and care. Writer/director
Taika Waititi sometimes gets across some of the points he wants and
landing a couple of effective punches, but ultimately cannot maintain
the gravitas he wants and needs. Jojo
Rabbit
is disappointing, but in a fairly interesting way.
The film stars Roman Griffin Davis as the eponymous Jojo, a 10-year-old wannabe Nazi living in a quiet German village with his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson). After an incident with a grenade ends his dreams of serving Hitler, Jojo volunteers to work around town for the insouciant Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell), his assistant Finkel (Alfie Allen), and Fraulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson). Jojo is prone to an active imagination and many misperceptions about the Jewish people, which are spurred by frequent conversations with an imaginary Hitler (played by Waititi). Jojo's life shifts dramatically once he finds the young Jewish woman Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) hiding from the Nazis in his home. Elsa's presence begins to shift Jojo's perspective on everything he knows, just as the war winds down and his village succumbs to chaos.
There's a fair amount going on with Jojo Rabbit, and Waititi does pull some of it off. The film is fine as a coming of age story, even though the main character is a stone's throw away from being a Nazi. There's a nice little theme about finding heroism in the small moments, whether it's secretly placing anti-Nazi propaganda around town or expressing oneself amid tyranny. Waititi has some good points about how little effort it takes for outright stupidity to evolve into commonplace evil; it's easy to make fun of folks who believe Jewish people have horns, at least until they start slaughtering them based on that belief. The film's farcical nature cuts deepest with this point, due in part to the timeliness of such ideology.
The film stars Roman Griffin Davis as the eponymous Jojo, a 10-year-old wannabe Nazi living in a quiet German village with his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson). After an incident with a grenade ends his dreams of serving Hitler, Jojo volunteers to work around town for the insouciant Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell), his assistant Finkel (Alfie Allen), and Fraulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson). Jojo is prone to an active imagination and many misperceptions about the Jewish people, which are spurred by frequent conversations with an imaginary Hitler (played by Waititi). Jojo's life shifts dramatically once he finds the young Jewish woman Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) hiding from the Nazis in his home. Elsa's presence begins to shift Jojo's perspective on everything he knows, just as the war winds down and his village succumbs to chaos.
There's a fair amount going on with Jojo Rabbit, and Waititi does pull some of it off. The film is fine as a coming of age story, even though the main character is a stone's throw away from being a Nazi. There's a nice little theme about finding heroism in the small moments, whether it's secretly placing anti-Nazi propaganda around town or expressing oneself amid tyranny. Waititi has some good points about how little effort it takes for outright stupidity to evolve into commonplace evil; it's easy to make fun of folks who believe Jewish people have horns, at least until they start slaughtering them based on that belief. The film's farcical nature cuts deepest with this point, due in part to the timeliness of such ideology.
It's
difficult for films to shift between absurdity and seriousness given
how far the gap is between the two. Waititi, to his credit, sometimes
succeeds at doing exactly that. One sequence in particular, a
sequence where Jojo Rabbit takes a “heil Hitler” joke and
turns it into a menacing moment for Elsa, is quite striking. It's a
really stunning moment in which the films reminds viewers the initial
the joke comes from a rather dark place and comes with terrible
consequences. When Jojo Rabbit makes
contact with its target, it hits with precision and force. But
the film's batting average is right around the Mendoza line, failing
more often than not to square up on those little moments of insight.
The final battle scene, the moment when Jojo witnesses the
consequences of his dreams, lacks the effectiveness found in the far
smaller moment below. It's more silly than stern, suffering from the
Life is Beautiful problem of taking an atrocity too lightly.
The
biggest issue with Jojo Rabbit is Waititi himself. His
imaginary Hitler shifts the film's otherwise absurdist tone toward
twee and cute, adding more layers to the film's constant tonal
shifts. The violence meant to jolt the audience loses its effect
because the tone is already too far above the grand for viewers to
land in the midst of the horror. Having Hitler as an imaginary friend
is the film's selling point, yet it's a joke doesn't go anywhere of
interest. And his Hitler isn't an interesting take on the character;
Mel Brooks took a similar approach around 50 years ago to much
greater effect. Making Hitler flamboyant is also an easy choice, a
simple way of converting a horror villain into a silly little thing.
Jojo Rabbit has a lot of these uninspired decisions as lazy
shorthand to the audience. Captain Klenzendorf's motivation for
casually ignoring Nazism starts off as a really interesting study of
a warrior no longer allowed to fight, but ends up as a gay joke. The
soundtrack is uber literal, ending with the most obvious David Bowie
song imaginable because lazy thematic resonance. This film is, or at
least should be, more interesting than these choices. It should
challenge the audience more often than it does, give them room to
reflect a little about why they're laughing at the jokes. Jojo
Rabbit ultimately loses its focus and can't deliver the knockout
punch it winds up to strike.
Review:
Three out of Five Stars
Click
here
to
see the trailer.
Rating:
PG-13
Run
time: 108 minutes
Genre:
Comedy
tl;dr
What
Worked: Sam
Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Some Themes
What
Fell Short: Taika
Waititi's Hitler, Tonal imbalance, Banality
What
To Watch As Well:
The
Grand Budapest Hotel, The Producers
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