Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Viggo Mortensen | ... |
Halder
|
|
Jason Isaacs | ... |
Maurice
|
|
Jodie Whittaker | ... |
Anne
|
|
Steven Mackintosh | ... |
Freddie
|
|
Mark Strong | ... | ||
|
Gemma Jones | ... |
Mother
|
|
Anastasia Hille | ... |
Helen
|
|
Ruth Gemmell | ... |
Elisabeth
|
|
Ralph Riach | ... |
Brunau
|
Steven Elder | ... | ||
Kevin Doyle | ... |
Commandant
|
|
|
David de Keyser | ... |
Mandelstam
|
Guy Henry | ... |
Doctor
|
|
Adrian Schiller | ... | ||
Rick Warden | ... |
Brownshirt
|
John Halder is a 'good' and decent individual with family problems: a neurotic wife, two demanding children and a mother suffering from senile dementia. A literary professor, Halder explores his personal circumstances in a novel advocating compassionate euthanasia. When the book is unexpectedly enlisted by powerful political figures in support of government propaganda, Halder finds his career rising in an optimistic current of nationalism and prosperity. Seemingly inconsequential decisions lead to choices, which lead to more choices... with eventually devastating effect. Written by Anonymous
An easily Seduced Academic is separated from His Wife and His Conscience by a Flirtatious Blonde Student and a Allure of an Easy Life from the Nazis. A Weak Intellectual Type is probably an Easy Mark for both. The "Good" Man who does nothing while Evil is all around Him is the Heart and Soul of the Film, Subtly and Methodically showing how it can readily happen.
The Movie is so easily paced that it lacks a few Hard and Disturbing Scenes to jar the Viewer into some sort of Urgency. Nothing here seems at all Desperate until it is too late and that's the Thesis. But in Cinematic Terms it all just sort of happens and the Impact of the Implications and the Fingerpointing gets smothered in a Lethargic Pace and the Exclamation Points become Periods.
Not a Bad Movie, it is quite Good. However, the Profound Warnings it attempts to Reflect with its Historical Mirror are never given enough Hutzpah to be anything more than a Muse. A Sincere and Important Muse to be sure, but it fails to use its Fiction and its Medium to bring Home its Message. Apathy is nothing but Self-Preservation at the Expense of Everything Else.