BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

SnoopyStyle Adam Stein (Jeff Goldblum) is a charming patient at a mental institution for Holocaust survivors in 1961 Israel. His doctor Nathan Gross (Derek Jacobi) is confounded. He is infatuated with nurse Gina Grey (Ayelet Zurer). He is haunted by dogs and starts to hallucinate. He finds a boy acting like a dog under his bed. Before the war, Adam was a magician, all-around entertainer. He was liked by everybody including the Nazis until he was put into a concentration camp. The camp was run by Commandant Klein (Willem Dafoe) who recognized him. Adam survived by playing the part of the Commandant's "dog" while his family is killed off.There is an interesting performance from Jeff Goldblum. However everything else is done with such lifelessness. Both the asylum and the concentration camp are locations of absurd lunacy. There is a rambling nature to the story. It is almost Kafkaesque. I wonder if there is too much time at the asylum. At its core, this must be a battle between Adam and Commandant Klein rather than Adam and the boy. The problem is that the movie spends too little time with Klein.

Nozz Not only some deservedly big international actors but also some local favorites from Israel do their best with a script that can scarcely scrape together a brief, weak thread of interest. The movie is based on a book by Yoram Kaniuk, who was also the author of HIMMO, KING OF JERUSALEM. Both stories are about hospitalized men. Evidently Kaniuk identifies with a fantasy protagonist who, by way of great suffering, achieves a martyrdom that returns him to a state of babyhood where he has no responsibilities but is the center of attention and is doted on by a beautiful lady in white. Not a healthy fantasy, but it's not the basic problem of the movie. The basic problem is that the incidents are insistently arbitrary. The hero is at first dependent on a Nazi whose whims are arbitrary. Then he becomes insane, so that his own behavior is arbitrary. Then he's put in a hospital where the rules, as far as the audience can tell, are arbitrary-- restrictive one moment, permissive the next. Unlike the patients in HIMMO, the surrounding patients here are ciphers; they are astoundingly well disciplined, always keeping quiet so that Adam can express himself at will. They restrict their personalities to a single quirk apiece and none of them presents any conflict that could drive a story-- except the boy who behaves like a dog. He presents an opportunity for Adam to redeem himself by helping someone who is in a way his mirror image, and thank goodness for this one escape from the arbitrary succession of dramatic but directionless incidents. Unfortunately it occupies only a little of the movie and is far too sketchy. A dream cast, a fine composer, good visuals-- all wasted.

mefleischer I wanted this to be something it clearly could never live up to...."An entertaining film with great actors playing well written parts". So maybe it's the writing that let's it down or maybe it's the director that let it down but I have to say it's also some of the acting that lets it down. Interesting story line that in the right hands could have been something special. Simple things like Jeff Goldblum (whom I'm a fan of) speaking one moment with a German accent then a scene later without it is a tip off somethings not right here. Willem Dafoe as usual doesn't miss a beat and plays his part to a tee. In the end it not something you have to put on your list of things to see which is a shame because the story itself holds promise. It's frustrating watching movies that could have been, should have been and seeing them done like this. All that money and talent.

rp-mccann While the purpose of the comments here (to my understanding) are to help folks decide if they wish to see a film, I for one do not understand why it seems so important for some reviews to be so specifically critical. In fact "Author: uncertain from Poland" said it best "turn it off" but left out the most important part. That is His (or) Her opinion. So some did not like the film, then "turn it off" or don't watch it. But to react in such a ugly manor at makes it appear you have the only correct opinion as to the rest of humanity that might wish to see it? I just do not understand.While I may be just a "goy" and due to my upbringing, understand very little about the horrors and joys Jewish history. I for one found this film an excellent escape from my current reality. Showing yet another piece of "what could be", exposing more history that is too often swept under the rug. Isn't that what films are suppose to do? Provide some escape and provoke thought?"Never Again" rings so true, and those that some how managed to survive and continue I would imagine would all applaud the combined efforts of all the actors, directors, and staff for producing such a great film.If you do not like what you are seeing, stop looking, change the channel, if one has to be so negative (to sleep at night) I feel sorry for them. But attempt to control what I can view and think? Well, that is a battle left alone, as I tire of stooping to their level to acknowledge them. While everyone does have a right to their point of view, too many seem to think the world revolves around them, and not around us.I have been a fan of Mr Goldblum for many years, and this is (in my humble opinion) his best performance yet! I will be so very disappointed if he is not awarded an Academy Award for his performance in this movie. Dark as it may have been. Well worth seeing.