Taika Waititi must love taking chances. Granted, they’ve paid off for him so far. What We Do in the Shadows and The Hunt for the Wilderpeople were both funny and fresh comedies. His entry to the MCU, Thor: Ragnarok, rightfully propelled him into the big time. And what does he do with his newfound clout? He makes a comedy where he plays a ten year old’s imaginary friend, and since the boy lives in World War II era Germany, naturally his imaginary friend is Adolph Hitler.
Yeah, that’s a bit risky.
Fortunately, the movie is rather good. While maybe not the perfect comedy, far more of it works than doesn’t.
The movie opens with young Johannes “Jojo” Betzler’s (Roman Griffin Davis) getting ready for a weekend away at a Hitler Youth camp. His support comes from imaginary pal Adolph. As imgainary friends go, Adolph may not be the best one. He’s quick to point out Jojo is not particularly athletic or popular and he can’t even tie his own shoes.
Jojo has a few problems at the camp, but after returning to his home, he finds something unexpected: there’s a teenage girl living in a hidden space in his house. And Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) is, of course, Jewish.
What is Jojo to do knowing as he does that his country’s greatest enemy is living under his roof, particularly since there’s a good chance that if this got out, it would also mean the death of Jojo’s mother Rosie (Scarlett Johannson) and perhaps even Jojo himself? After all, there’s only so much advice Adolph can give since he’s really just a kid’s idea of what Hitler is like.
This was a really fun movie with some nice performances. Waititi’s Adolph is a nice touch. He only pops up here and there, but he’s too goofy to really seem evil. That makes sense. He’s still a kid’s idea of Hitler. Likewise, Sam Rockwell does a nice comic turn as a somewhat bitter German soldier sent to watch a kid’s camp. Rockwell’s character is perhaps the most well-rounded of the supporting characters and a delight to see every time he pops up again. And Johansson gave a rather warm performance as Jojo’s mother, a woman who clearly doesn’t believe in the Nazi ideal and does what she can for her son.
Additionally, there’s Rebel Wilson as a high ranking woman at the camp who never met a scurrilous rumor or urban legend about other people she didn’t believe and a brief appearance by Stephen Merchant as a somewhat rather cheerful Gestapo agent.
But the main thrust of the movie is about the relationship between Jojo and Elsa as the two get to know each other. If anything, while the performances between the two are fine, that may be the movie’s biggest weakness: without the jokes, this movie is very much a standard World War II movie about the German experience of a young person learning what his country is up to and how wrong it is. It fits a number of familiar beats that wouldn’t look out of place in some kind of Oscar bait drama. Arguably, that is what makes Jojo Rabbit as special as it is, but it feels like a step down for Waititi. His other movies are far less standard than this. I really enjoyed this movie, but I also think I wanted it to be a little bit more than it was.
Grade: B+
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