Cusack is Max Rothman, and he makes a good job of it - I didn't realise he could do both this and "Being John Malkovich" and ace them both. Noah Taylor makes a convincing Hitler (without the trademark moustache), a small grey splotch in an otherwise colourful milieu. The director has gone to inordinate lengths to distinguish between Rothman's whirling, fresh, high society, and Hitler's miserable, colourless and ugly barrack life.

The film is expertly constructed, with every second filled with tension, and a genuine question mark over the ending. I have never watched such an unpredictable film; there are shots which play with this ambiguity throughout and the characterisation of the Jews as loyal subjects is pleasing, having seen so many films in the past where history is projected backwards, the most obvious of these being the line in "Onegin" where early nineteenth-century gentlemen "predict" the Russian revolution.

A word of warning, though - make sure you have something lighter to watch (e.g. an episode of your favourite comedy) afterwards, as you will need reassurance that the world is not all bad.

The birth of futurism...
Review date: 2004-12-28 Rating: 10 out of 10

This film captures the reeling dysphoria of what I always imagined as the grimey, freezing, post-Versailles Germany unerringly... This is no biopic, Adolf Hitler is here used more as a trope for the inevitability of military-modernism, futurism from the sludge and despair of a country squeezed "till the pips squeek[ed]".

The two lead performances are magnificent; Noah Taylor's ranting importunate Hitler gathers malignant stature as he slowly falls into the beligerant mood of the time; Cusack's, slick, thoughtful lothario convinces throughout and underlines his position to the fore of American acting talent.

Highly recommended viewing.

Drama That Lacks Something
Review date: 2004-08-06 Rating: 4 out of 10

The film is set immediately after World War 1. Adolf Hitler is penniless and looking to channel his energy into something he believes in.

At first Noah Taylor doesn't seem to have the stature to play Hitler - especially after Robert Carlyle's recent definitive portrayal in 'The Rise Of Evil'. However by the end of the film,
Taylor delivers a powerful scene that transforms him into the Hitler from the old black and white news reals.

John Cusak is Jewish an art dealer Max Rothman who recognises Hitler's twisted passion and tries to stear him to art instead of politics. The film has a lot of dialogue for intellectuals to chew on and for that reason this will never be a true mainstream movie.

Its just a bit to heavy and at times a little slow for your average Joe Public. The plot is not spectacular and centres on the contrast between Hitler returning from war with nothing and Cusak's character returning to a comfortable, privileged life.

An unusual film for John Cusak who was the hook for me to watch it. He delivers difficult dialogue slickly but not as his usual brash, confident screen persona. I think the film would make a great play but it doesn't have the same impact on film.

A heavy drama of substance that doesn't have quite enougth gripping scenes or events in the story.

Max is really really really really really good. Really good.
Review date: 2004-02-29 Rating: 10 out of 10

This, along with The Singing Detective (nullify my opinion now, if you like) was one of, I think, the best films of last year. The film follows Max (John Cusack), a Jewish art dealer, and his fraught relationship with an angry, angry Hitler (Noah Taylor), living in squalid barracks and carrying a huge chip on his shoulder. With the guidance of his Jewish mentor, he gains some semblance of control, but we know he won't maintain this pretense of reason...
So the film is scary, teetering on the edge of hysteria, blending 1930's suburbia with omnipresent anarchy- a clashing of naïvity and genocide (strangely poignant in a rather bizarre Aryan puppet-show) and it's cast, from bit-parts to starring roles flesh out brilliantly- the films' adpetness at creating thumbnail portraits with a few words and a side-long glance is astonishing.
There have been gripes about it- that it's unfulfilling of it's huge potential, that it's historically innaccurate, that Hitler's eye-brows were slightly better trimmed, but I think the deft way in which the film handles small issues while still dealing with far-raching themes and, at the end of the day, a topic that has scarred the last century is admirable- and as for accusations of innaccuracy, I believe Hitler abandoned any thoughts of a career in art before the first world war, so the film doesn't pretend to be text book.
'Tis a work of art, a labour of Bohemian love and one of the few films I've seen with the line 'Hitler, c'mon, I'll buy you a lemonade' in it. It's fiction... It's been a while since I saw it at the cinema, but I'm fairly sure that none of the events portrayed happened- I have a GCSE in history to prove it- so let's sit back, enjoy, spook ourselves with Taylor's frightening performance, bask in the warm glow of Cusack's benevolence, and wallow in the sheer perfection of acting in general, atmosphere and attention to (purely fictional, mark me) detail.
James says: let the few descrepancies they take with history pass, and enjoy this thought-provoking flight of fantasy, I mean, we all know Hitler couldn't paint- but if John Cusack told me he was my father, I'd believe him.

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