Film Review: JOJO RABBIT
Photo by 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation - © 2019 20th
Any film which tackles the subject of Nazism and Hitler with humor is walking a fine line and risking attacks of insensitivity. On the surface this comedy about an incredibly cute, sensitive 10 year old German boy, Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) anxious to fit in, who has an imaginary friend called Der Fuhrer who resembles Hitler, sounds rather frivolous. When the film opens Jojo, who idolizes Hitler, is about to have “the best day of his life”. He has been selected to join the Hitler Youth camp and with the help of his imaginary friend, he has been practicing his “Heil Hitler” salute and soaking up all of the absurdly hateful propaganda about Jews being fed to him by his pompous, buffoonish Fuhrer. Waititi plays the character like a zealous little league coach spouting Nazi slogans and empowerment jargon to get Jojo revved up.
Photo by 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation - © 2019 20th
There is a Wes Anderson deadpan humor which alternates between dark and silly whenever the kids and Nazi’s interact. At the camp there are all of these serious adult Nazis teaching 10-year old boys and girls battle tactics as if they are preparing for imminent deployment. Since the notion is pretty ridiculous, it is played for laughs. The kids are bullied and taunted by the officers who talk to them like they are grownup, until they hand them weapons like guns and exploding devices and Jojo gets seriously wounded. Then he gets booted out of camp to his great dismay. He has an adorable best friend Yorki (Archie Yates) who is chubby and wears thick glasses and keeps him posted on camp activities.
Photo by 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation - © 2019 20th
Jojo lives alone with his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) since his father has allegedly gone to the front to fight, although there is an ominous lack of news from him. Rosie is busy working at something which is unclear at first. She is a quirky, upbeat mom who tries to instill in Jojo some counter attitudes to the hateful Nazi narrative to which he is so inundated by the incessant indoctrination of his imaginary Hitler. During his recovery time at home alone he discovers the presence of the Jewish girl, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie), his mother has hidden in the attic. It turns out she was a friend of his sister who died of tuberculosis. However, poor Jojo is horrified by the presence of a much maligned Jew. He has ingested excessive descriptions of the evilness of Jews. She plays it cleverly, at first taking advantage of his misguided fear of her powers and playing along with his naively creative efforts to torment her. It becomes something of a game between them, until the Gestapo come to the house and she saves the day for them both.
Photo by 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation - © 2019 20th
Based on Christine Leunen’s book Caging Skies, the film is most assuredly ant-war and anti-hate, but it is embedded in a humorous easily-digested package with appealing characters and Monty Python-ish villains (Sam Rockwell and Rebel Wilson). The imaginary Hitler character was not in the book and is a total creation of the director, who decided to play the role himself.
Photo by 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation - © 2019 20th
The film is an indictment of the absurdity of war particularly in the final scenes when the invasion is coming from the Russian and American fronts and nobody knows who the enemy is and there is chaotic, random death and destruction. The uplift at the end plays against so much horrible loss and devastation it seems paltry by comparison. The price is way too high. I left the theatre with mixed feelings which may be appropriate. Life is not simple or black and white.
