Review of Swing Kids (1993) by Henrik S — 23 Aug 2009

Pretty unsinpired movie portraying the fate of a bunch of "Swing Kids" in Nazi Germany. The movie feels as if the producers were intrigued by the idea of making a movie about the swing kids but refused to put any more effort into the creative development of the movie, blandly stretching its appeal out over the whole feature and thus making it feel shallow and unsatisfying in the end. The cast is somewhat likeable, Robert Sean Leonard deserved a better fate as actor instead of being stuck on House MD, people had high hopes for after he stole the show on Dead Poets society but nothing ever came of it. Christian Bale, what can I say, he shows one more why he is one of the greatest actors of our time and his talent is sparkling off the screen. The rest of the cast (including a subtle Kenneth Branagh) is average. I must say, I always get confused with movie set in non-American countries being so throughroughly American, some actors speak with German accent, others don't, some things are written in German, others aren't, a lacklustre production. As I said before, the story is build around the idea of the Swing Kids, but is nothing out of the ordinary, same old boring stuff you have seen in all the other movies. Bad guys, good guys, bla bla bla. The swing dancing is nice to look at but the swing segements, as well as the general portrayal of the swing scene lack focus and love for detail and you will usually find yourself switching off during the segemtns, all in all, the actor's passion for the swing is very unbelievable.

I'd say good effort, but it wasn't. I'd say nice that someone looks at a rather undocumented phenomenon of German history, but that is both not the case and has not been the intention by the producers, who were simply looking to exploit it and turn it into some jazzy (literally) movie event, bah.

Way below par, two stars for Christian Bale, set design and costumes but that - is - it.

Stay away from it.

Henrik.