Jojo Rabbit

Synopsis: Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) is a nice German boy who wants to shine as a member of Hitler Youth. When he discovers that his single mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their apartment he must decide who he really is and where his loyalties lie.

It’s a fair bet that New Zealand writer/director Taika Waititi is a big fan of Wes Anderson’s delighful Moonrise Kingdom (2012) with its khaki-coloured Boy Scout troop and two earnest young leads on a romantic adventure. He sets his latest film in Nazi Germany and his approach is understandably less whimsical, but the similarities are obvious.

Unfortunately whilst the film’s production design compares commendably with Anderson’s retro stylings the rest of the film falls flat and anyone looking for a repeat of the director’s previous effort, the charming Hunt for the Wilderpeople 2016 will be sorely disappointed. If some may question in principle how much humour there is in the Holocaust, something notably essayed by Roberto Benigni with Life Is Beautiful (1997) and Mel Brooks with The Producers (1967), the most obvious problem with JoJo Rabbit is that Waititi’s script is at best only intermittently funny with the persistent National Socialist-like demonisation of the Jews, even if clearly ironically-meant, wearing very thin. There are some droll moments with one particularly good joke about German Shepherds and but overall the comic timing and one may well argue, the film’s tone, is off.

In the lead role Roman Griffin Davis is cute but the director can’t do for him what he did for his young male lead, Julian Dennison, in Wilderpeople – make him funny. And given that he is on screen most of the time that makes for a big hole in the film. As his imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler, Waititi takes on a provocative role playing him of course caricaturally but only late in the film when he apes the Fuhrer’s Nuremberg gesticulations did it seem worth the effort. Scarlett Johansson is serviceable as JoJo’s mum as is Thomasin McKenzie as the girl in the cupboard and thankfully Sam Rockwell brings his usual irreverence to his role as a gay Nazi commandant. As always the less said about Rebel Wilson the better.

The idea of JoJo Rabbit is attractive but Waititi doesn’t bring it off, his film, albeit well-made, falling somewhere in the landscape between Moonrise Kingdom and Life is Beautiful, its triumphant ending, played to Bowie’s German version of ‘Heroes’, feeling completely bogus.

Want more about this film?

Want something different?