The story of a group of Jewish Boy Scouts who worked with the French Resistance to save the lives of ten thousand orphans during World War II.
It seems there can never be enough World War II films. There must be an endless void in Hollywood that demands the ongoing production of WWII flicks because I truly do not understand the need for more. I am being massively unfair, of course, but then again, this was not just another unnecessary WWII flick, it was unnecessary and cast Jesse Eisenberg as our hero. Again, maybe I am being unfair, but I have yet to buy into Eisenberg’s acting abilities. His naturally occurring frenetic energy saturates any role he’s taken on. You never forget he’s Jesse Eisenberg and that feels like a sin when it comes to acting. My biases aside, “Resistance,” isn’t all that bad. It’s harmless. A blip in the multitude of visual pleasures at our disposal. If anything, the film may encourage viewers to further examine the life of Marcel Marceau.
Being the nature of the film, you know what to expect: Nazis and plenty of trauma and violence. Plenty of moments to tug on heartstrings and tear ducts. Early in the film you witness a Jewish girl, Elsbeth (Bella Ramsey), see her world torn to pieces. Her mother and father ripped from their home, along with plenty of other Jewish men and women, beaten and murdered in the streets. Hundreds of Jewish children are orphaned, including Elsbeth. The children are central to this story. And it is Marcel Marceau (Eisenberg) and a group of Jewish Scouts who help protect these children over the course of a few years as Nazi occupation intensifies and forces many to flee wherever they can.
Before he was Marcel Marceau, he was Marcel Mangel, the son of a Kosher butcher who is hell-bent on being an actor, with a penchant for miming. Of course, this will not do. Artists are never allowed to be artists until they are in fact artists. Until that point, they are whatever they are expected to be. But with war comes change. And most cannot even afford to be whom they are expected to be. For Marcel, this makes no difference. He is an artist, an actor, and lives as if he cannot ever live without that essential component unique to him. And while others mock him, his skills bring levity to dark situations and quick-wittedness to dangerous ones.
“Resistance” has a little bit of everything. It has the sweeping melodramatic narrative of any war drama/biopic: a sprinkling of love interests, a dabble of pyrotechnics, an infamously ruthless Nazi, traumatic deaths, close calls, and plenty of heroism. It’s also visually stunning. Definitely pleasing to the eye but stretched thin narratively, it receives the glossy Hollywood stamp of approval. The acting is fine. Nothing transformative. Eisenberg is Eisenberg with an accent. Clémence Poésy is sweet as Marcel’s love interest Emma, and Matthias Schweighöfer is formidable as Klaus Barbie. His is perhaps the most affecting performance of the lot.
Marcel Marceau deserves better. Jakubowicz’s “Resistance” gives us the usual drama and action that is expected of a wartime flick but it fails to capture the essence and importance of Marceau. There is no lingering impression of his importance when there definitely should be. “Resistance” is an easy watch, but is also easily forgotten.
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