Review of Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005) by Angela N — 12 Apr 2006

This movie tells the true story of a 21-year-old woman named Sophie Scholl who was part of a small, anti-Nazi resistance movement called the White Rose during World War II.

One day, Sophie and her brother Hans took a suitcase full of anti-war leaflets to their college campus and ran around distributing them while everyone else was in class. All was going well until Sophie got cocky and dropped a whole stack of them off the third floor balcony so they fluttered down into the main lobby just as classes were letting out. Unfortunately, a janitor caught her and she and Hans were subsequently arrested and charged with littering. No wait, that wasn't it. They were charged with high treason, aiding the enemy, and demoralizing the troops. Kind of like Cindy Sheehan, except that these were formal accusations, not just the sort that are bandied about by the conservative media.

The bulk of the film shows Sophie being questioned in some government official's office. At first she denies that she had anything to do with the leaflets, claiming that the now empty suitcase she was caught carrying was to be used to pick up her clean laundry from her mother's house. Good thinking. But eventually, when told that her brother has confessed, she not only admits that she distributed the leaflets, she gets all righteous and uppity about it too. The official tries to convince her to play the "girl card" and say that her brother was the evil mastermind and she was just the innocent sister helping him out. She refuses, saying she knew very well what she was doing and is mighty proud of it, thank you very much.

When she's not being questioned, Sophie hangs out in a small but cozy prison cell where she's comforted by her older female roommate, also jailed on anti-war charges. The roommate assures her that Hitler will be defeated any day now and they'll both be freed. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen fast enough for Sophie who's tried just a couple of days after she's arrested along with Hans and another one of their coconspirators. They're each given an opportunity to speak during the trial and are each in turn defiant and unapologetic. This pisses off the judge immensely. He blusters on about how dare they speak out against Hitler when the state of Germany paid for their educations and then sentences them all to death. The very next day. With no chance of appeal.

If this movie's depiction of these events is accurate, Sophie Scholl was a very brave woman with strong convictions. The only time she cries in the film is after saying goodbye to her parents for the very last time, shortly before getting her head lopped off. The actress who plays Sophie (Julia Jentsch [color=black][font=Tahoma]?[/font][/color] you never heard of her, right?) does a great job of portraying her as a very strong, idealistic young woman. I have no complaints about the acting.

But still. I was only able to remain riveted for so long during the lengthy interrogation scenes. My mind kept rooting for Sophie to outwit her nemesis but then I'd remember the title of the film [color=black][font=Tahoma]?[/font][/color] the final days [color=black][font=Tahoma]?[/font][/color] and realize that this probably wasn't going to happen. Unless maybe she managed to get released and then, in a stroke of irony, got hit by a car and killed on the way to her celebration dinner. And then sixty years later someone decided to make a movie about her anyway.

This is a well-made, well-acted movie, but it never really sucked me in. I don't know why. No apologies.