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.
There are many films dedicated to the survival and cause of World War II – many of which are centered around Nazism and its cataclysmic attack on the global nations and its Jewish populations. However, “Resistance” is a one of a kind film in its genre due to its centering emphasis on the Jewish children fleeing from country to country against the harrowing dehumanization acts of the Nazi Germans. Rather than solely characterizing the most horrifying acts of violence against many innocents like some documentaries, “Resistance” documents how the light of children continues to shine in resistance against the darkness that belies many adults chasing the glories of war.
“Resistance” begins by introducing Marcel Marceau, played by Jesse Eisenberg, a still aspiring actor who will eventually grow into the world-famous mime artist that we recognize from the 1960s. Marcel Marceau starts off as an interesting character, standing out against the crowd for his desire to perform the arts rather than consider the political contributions of his time. He comes off as self-centered and out of touch with his surroundings, but his love for the arts is soon translated into a love to create joy and laughter among the children he watches over. His love culminates in a decision to join the resistance and their mission to covertly flee the children while hiding in plain sight within German-occupied territories.
Jesse Eisenberg’s performance as Marcel Marceau is quite the transformation – his ability to characterize the dichotomy of Marceau’s internal dilemma into an immersive experience is a delight. With that being said, Marcel Marceau, as a character, feels rather out of place in the narrative of the resistance as a whole. The pacing of climactic moments is unsteady. The film teeters back and forth between the children’s fear, the severity of the Nazis’ brutal repression, and Marceau’s individualistic growth into an honorable resistance fighter in an unsteady timeline. Rather than coming across as a collective narrative, there is a lack of tangible unity between the three journeys despite it being on the same path. Over time, I lost my ability to become invested in any of the characters due to being repeatedly bombarded with the heartbreaking cries of children and the overindulgent scenes of violence which makes you wince with agitation.
Even seeing Matthias Schweighöfer on-screen did nothing to soothe the ache that this film seems to exploit. Instead, he is cast as another evil archetype of a Nazi, killing without mercy and finding sadistic pleasure in fulfilling the holy grail of Hitler. The movie explores a sad attempt to humanize Schweighöfer’s character by creating a narrative of an infant daughter, but I am much more interested in exploring the nuances and the moral dilemmas that define the path of a Nazi leader. Are they really as two-dimensional, black-and-white as their movie counterparts proclaim?
“Resistance” is a fresher take for World War II and the losses of many Jewish, poor, disabled, gypsy, Slavic, and Polish populations, but it continues to struggle with a common film making dilemma: how to deliver a serious and tragic historical record without coming across as too kitsch or disorienting for its viewers. While I commend the dedication “Resistance” has to the Jewish children disillusioned by the ferocity of war, the jarring emotional play only makes the film hard to watch more than once. Furthermore, despite being called “Resistance,” the film does not focus too much on the significance of the French Resistance during the time of Hitler’s reign. The potential instead remains unexplored. Had the movie taken its time to give us a closer look at the functions of resistance groups formed by different countries, perhaps a balance could have been struck between remembrance and digestibility.
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