MAX ---
Max Rothman (John Cusack, "High Fidelity") is a progressive art dealer in 1918 Munich when he meets a Corporal whom he fought with in Ypres who aspires to be an artist. Screenwriter Menno Meyjes ("The Siege") makes his directorial debut conjecturing what might have happened if the artist in Adolph Hitler (Noah Taylor, "Shine") had been cultivated by a Jew named "Max."
One has to admire Meyjes' idea and producer/star Cusack's commitment to this unusual project which never quite takes off mostly due to its inability to convince that Max would continue to befriend Hitler. While Meyjes' script does a well balanced job of exploring ideas about art, politics and anti-Semitism, it is unfortunate he included lines like 'Hitler, come on, I'll buy you a lemonade.' Cusack, one of America's most undervalued actors, is utterly convincing as the one-armed gallery owner, but Taylor's Hitler is ironically too avant-garde an interpretation.
Max epitomizes Nietzsche's argument, which Max quotes to Hitler, that anti-Semitism is the ideal of those who feel cheated. Max is well off, runs in sophisticated circles with his beautiful Jewish dancer wife Nina (Molly
Parker, "The Center of the World") and also keeps an Aryan artist mistress Liselore (Leelee Sobieski, "Joy Ride") while Hitler is poor and friendless. Where Max translates his inability to be a painter (he lost an arm in WWI) into his current career, Hitler cannot pour out his rage at the injustice of the Versailles Pact onto a canvas and so begins ranting at beer halls and political gatherings. Hitler is as out of his element in the explosion of modern art, hanging onto his traditional conservative style, as he is in society. (When viewing the work of Dadaist George Grosz (Kevin McKidd, "Topsy-Turvy") in Max's gallery, Hitler observes 'This is Bolshy, huh?') Meyjes' finally makes Rothman's interest in Hitler's art believable in the last act, when he pulls out Adolph's sweeping Teutonic architectural designs. Max views them as the madcap futuristic kitsch of a barking mad genius, but the very ideas Hitler has begun propagandizing take shape to deny his coveted entrance into the art world.
Cusack is well supported by Molly Parker, who brings a modern sensibility to her wife and mother. A scene between the two, where Nina gently but firmly makes Max choose her or his mistress while she practices at the barre, is one of the film's most memorable. Sobieski, however, is out of her depth as the bohemian performance artist who makes fires in the middle of her apartment. She's not strong enough to convince as a potential threat to Max's marriage. Taylor is fine shouting and spitting his speeches, but he never convinces as an artist. The shaggy hairstyle he sports is more successful bleeding the historical Hitler out of his character than evoking an artistic sensibility. Taylor is given terrific support from Ulrich Thomsen ("Celebration") as Captain Mayr, the man who encourages his political side and Max's opposition, another of Meyjes' studies in contrast.
Ben Van Os's ("The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover") production design and Lajos Koltai's ("Malenda") crisp photography capture the modern world of 1918 Munich on location in Budapest. Particularly noteworthy is their work on the film's last scene, in which a city street and interior courtyard are visually joined while projecting opposing worlds.
B-
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