Max review

certificate_15

MAX

Bravely launching into the most taboo of territories, Menno Mayjes's historical fable must at least be admired for its sheer temerity for going under the skin of perhaps the most hated figure in history.

Set in war-ravaged Munich of 1918, Mayjes' film revolves around Max Rothman, whose ambition to become a painter was destroyed along with his right arm while he fought for Germany in the war. Now an affluent art dealer at the forefront of the modernist movement, Max meets and is drawn to a fellow veteran and aspiring painter with no money, no family and no friends but with a burning ambition for greatness. His name: Adolf Hitler.

And while Mayjes' ambition in the film is admirable, it's also the main fault of a movie which essentially attempts to cram in huge, painful themes into one single relationship and expect the weight to hold. All too often lines like 'You're not the most likeable man, Hitler' simply hit the wrong ironic spot and the audience is left only the refuge of startled laughter.

To his credit, however, Mayjes expertly depicts the historical seed bed in which Hitler's popularity grew; the turmoil of post-war Germany with its huge gulf between the haves and have-nots. Noah Taylor's Hitler is an entirely believable creation of bitterness, insecurity and rage and John Cusack is superb as the sympathetic, humorous and charismatic Max.

But with a denoument seemingly crow-barred into the movie for plot reasons rather than serving consistent characterisation, Max remains an ultimately flawed exercise in what if's.