Friday at the Movies: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

It's back! After being a little too busy/lazy to watch a movie (yes, too lazy to watch a movie) I'm back with a new edition.

This week's movie was an accident, really. Kyle and I came home from dinner on Sunday night and plopped on the couch. He quickly fell asleep while I watched Food Network Challenge. Once that was over, I needed something else. I flipped to the movie channels and discovered that The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was on. I had missed the first half hour but I had been wanting to see it so I put down the remote and watched.

It was released in 2008 and directed by Mark Herman. It stars Asa Butterfield as Bruno, Zac Matoon O'Brien as Leon, and Vera Farmiga as Bruno's mother.

The story centers around a family in Nazi Germany. The father in this family is a Nazi soldier. The family lives near a concentration camp where the young boy, Bruno, goes to the fence every day to talk with a boy who is imprisoned.

It was excellent. Depressing? Heartbreaking? Yes...but it's a Holocaust movie. Not many of them have happy endings. It is haunting, one of the things that makes a film great, in my opinion. The ending was especially powerful and if ever you want to stick around for a movie's end, this would be it.

The young boys, Bruno especially, were fantastic. I often think, "he/she's a good actor," without really thinking about the fact that they're just kids. They probably didn't even understand the whole story but they played their parts to perfection.

Needless to say, I highly recommend it. (And next week? I'll have a happier movie. I realize that Precious followed by The Boy in the Striped Pajamas doesn't exactly lift spirits.)