Review of Max (2000) by Hannibal O — 24 Aug 2008

Back when this came out, some worried that Menno Meyjes (screenwriter of The Color Purple) would humanize Adolf Hitler in this film. But the film is less concerned with making him sympathetic, or even very specific, than it is in using him to illustrate a series of ideas.

Meyjes' interest in ideas makes the film emotionally flat, but the pleasure of watching this film is more ideological than dramatic. The film proposes a number of "What If?" questions about the possibility of history turning out a different way in a mostly fictionalized, part accurate account of Hitler's early years.

I think the largest and riskiest What If question is what happens if one of history's most reviled people is cast as the lead role of a film? Meyjes counter-acts any possibly backlash to this by the casting of Cusack.

The film turns out to be only incidentally about the genesis of the building of the Nazi regime. Instead, its more about the relationship between the two men, who share a lot in common but are divided in many ways.

Overall, the film is a bit uneven despite a very powerful performance from Noah Taylor as Hitler. The film takes some time to get going, but its final half hour is gripping and you better understand Hitler's origins.

Cusack plays a Jewish art dealer, but his plight isn't really that interesting. In fact, I found this inequality in personalities between Hitler and Max to be one of the film's main drawbacks.

On the one hand, we have this extremely tormented guy, a man who commands the screen whenever he crosses it and who ultimately gives you much insight into his eventual path. On the other hand, we get to hang out with a rich, privileged art dealer who you don't much care about.

His wife, played by Molly Parker, and his mistress, played by the very miscast Leelee Sobieski, had almost zero chemistry or depth in their roles. Anyway, overall it was a decent film, mostly because of Taylor's strong performance.