The soundtrack has a feeling as carefree as the boys running through the opening scene of "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." They're on their way home from school, running through the streets with their arms extended, pretending to be airplanes. It's easy to remember doing the same thing yourself.
Then, the tempo changes as perfectly timed edits take you from the streets to a home where a rug is being rolled up, back to streets as the boys turn a corner, to a German shepherd barking ferociously as men and women and children are herded into a truck, then to the mansion again, where gleaming silverware is being wrapped in cloth.
Bruno (Asa Butterfield) bids his buddies goodbye and turns the corner to see crates bearing all his family's belongings being taken out of his home. It's Berlin, 1942. Bruno doesn't want to leave, but his mother (Vera Farmiga) cheerfully explains that his father (David Thewlis) has a new job and they have to move. The ramrod-straight icon of Hitler's army is warm and loving to his son, telling 8-year-old Bruno it will be an adventure for him and his sister, Gretel (Amber Beattie), who is 12.
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“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”
Rating: PG-13
When: Opens tomorrow
Running time: 1 hr., 33 min.
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The screenplay, taken from John Boyne's 2006 children's book by the same title, unfolds in a seemingly idyllic space in the countryside. Bruno, lonely and bored, is comforted by Maria (Cara Horgan), the young housekeeper who has moved with them.
Longing for adventure, Bruno begins to explore the grounds. From his window, he's seen a farm in the distance and is sure there must be children his age there. When he wanders into the backyard, his mother sees him from a window. Her eyes say much more than her words as she reminds him he can play only in the front. An obedient child, he turns back, but not before noticing the gate that leads where he really wants to go.
He struggles with this new life and the new people in it – soldiers guarding the entrance, his father's icy assistant, Lt. Kotler (Rupert Friend), and Pavel (David Hayman), an older man, who comes to the kitchen regularly with baskets of vegetables. Sitting on a stool, peeling potatoes, he gives Bruno a sad smile when the child asks why he's wearing his pajamas to work. And there is Herr Liszt (Jim Norton), brought in to tutor the children. Gretel soaks up the propaganda. Bruno, instead, asks questions, prompting stern reprimands.
One day, he darts for the back gate, runs through the woods, over a creek and up a little hill, where he stops at the barbed wire fence. There he meets Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), also 8, who lives on the other side of the fence. The innocence is painfully communicated as the boys' friendship develops.
Bruno is oblivious to Shmuel's reality and Shmuel, somber and resigned, simply enjoys the break from work, the food Bruno brings to him and these fleeting moments of childhood.
But Bruno has noticed the black smoke in the sky above the farm. So has his mother, and when she comes to the horrifying realization, she demands her husband let her take the children away.
The film is a poignant and enlightening footnote to history, difficult to watch and equally difficult to turn away from. The actors are uniformly excellent, save the somewhat disconcerting sound of their crisp English accents in a wholly German plot. Director Mark Herman has crafted a beautifully paced story, full of lingering shots that allow time to reflect on what's happening, and what it means. While not standard family fare, it is an important film parents and older children can see together. And not soon forget.
