Max Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)November 13th, 2002
MAX
# stars based on 4 stars: 3.5
Reviewed by: Harvey Karten
Lions Gate Films
Directed by: Menno Meyjes
Written by: Menno Meyjes
Cast: John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski, Molly Parker, Ulrich Thomsen
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 11/12/02
"If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Shakespeare's infamous character, Shylock, had uttered this in defense of both his religion and his natural desire to avenge himself against the Christians who, he believed, had regularly wronged him. Who would have thought that the same message could apply to Hitler, one of the 20th century's most notorious butchers who, like Stalin and Pol Pot killed millions of his own people? In Menno Meyjes's imaginative, thought-provoking, scandalously funny and thoroughly entertaining new movie, the writer-director explores the conceit that Adolf Hitler was, despite views to the contrary, a human being, who like you and me was born of woman. This doesn't sound like a revolutionary viewpoint but it's a miracle that "Max" even got made, given the squeamishness that could greet such a concept. Imagine crowds pouring out in front of the houses showing such a film! This is easy to do when you think of the large protests that greeted Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ," yet another deeply felt drama with moments of great power, boycotted by those who could not accept the issue that Jesus was a human beings with human doubts about his role on earth.
Though this is Meyjes's debut as a director, he was responsible for the script of "The Color Purple," and here demonstrates his continuing vision that film should be visually arresting with incisive dialogue. The witty statements that Meyjes puts into the mouth of his title character, Max (John Cusack) can remind one of the almost compulsive wit of New Yorker theater critic Anthony Lane or Atlantic Monthly's contributing writer, P.J. O'Rourke. This is exactly the kind of talk that would irritate the banal nerd Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor) who, in 1918, formed a (fictitious) love-hate relationship with the Jewish art gallery owner Max. Though both fought for their country in The First World War, Max emerges as a well-dressed, family man while Hitler, who never rose beyond the rank of corporal, is a homeless, friendless, failed artist still living in army barracks at the time the Versailles Treaty stripped Germany of its dignity.
Hitler is mentored by Max, a man who has more to complain about than Hitler given the former's loss of the right arm that he needed to further his ambitions as a painter. Encouraged to eschew politics and to put his rage against Versailles (and against the Jews) into painting rather than politics, Hitler nonetheless sensed that his affinity for classical design would not fit into the anarchic age of Dada. The Dadaist (to me expressionist) paintings in Max's gallery were debauched in Hitler's mind, though ironically enough he continues his dysfunctional kinship with the Jewish gallery owner.
Meyjes shows the German-dictator-to-be without a mustache, looking the way Hitler might have appeared at the age of thirty and yet not the robotic caricature we could expect in a more conventional treatment of the theme. Shockingly enough, we in the audience could even find pity in our hearts for the friendless man who uses rage as a narcotic against his feeling of nothingness, channeling it into a perverted sense of entitlement with the encouragement of a fellow soldier, Captain Mayr (Ulrich Thomsen). Unable to get a girlfriend on his own, he becomes even more hateful upon watching the urbane Max relate both to his charming wife Nina (Molly Parker) and his mistress Liselore (Leelee Sobieski).
The principal plus of this fable, a fictionalized account of the relationship between history's most brutal anti-Semite and a Jew who is as passionate about art as Hitler is about politics, is the credibility of the unusual alliance. John Cusack, who I believe performed for no pay in what is arguably his finest role, is ideal as both the complement of Hitler (both fought in the Battle of Ypres which devastated the German army) and antithesis. Their unusual alliance is bound to stimulate audience imagination, just as did an article some thirty years ago in the Saturday Evening Post entitled "If the South had won the Civil War." Just think: if Hitler had been admitted to the Vienna School of Art...if Hitler had found a mentor who could channel his emotions into painting...If Hitler found a girlfriend like Liselore...If Hitler...
Not Yet Rated. 110 minutes. Copyright 2002 by Harvey Karten at [email protected]
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
