Hey folks, Harry here... God I hope when I see MAX that I radically disagree with Kid A below. I wish his review was sloppily written and just juvenile. But it isn't. I would love to say I know him and he never knows what he's talking about, but I don't know him... I just hope he doesn't know what he's talking about, except... he seems to know what he's talking about. Hearing that John Cusack is essentially playing this character as himself... well, that is very disheartening. However, this is one of the first reviews I've seen. Hopefully the others will be of a more positive nature...
Hi Harry,
1st timer here.
Went to a screening of MAX last night in the slightly posh Belsize Park, London. I was quite excited about seeing this following your praise about the trailer. I didn't see the trailer myself but it must have been pretty well put together if it impressed you because the film itself is, to put it bluntly, rubbish. Let me guess, was the trailer made up of scenes of Hitler (Noah Taylor) making intense, ranting speeches interspersed with Max (John Cusack) telling Hitler about his talent for art and his power to do something great?
Anyway, the whole story can be summarised in one sentence: A Jewish art dealer tries to steer a young Adolf Hitler towards becoming an artist rather than going into politcs. This is, literally, the entire film. It is one idea stretched out to 90 minutes or so. The problem is there is no real depth and no interesting ideas explored within this story. The dialogue is poor, flat and unremarkable. The acting is totally mediocre. This surprised and disappointed me because I think both Cusack and Taylor are fantastic actors. Taylor's performance seemed misjudged. Whereas Hitler should have been portrayed as a dark and sinister but intelligent young man, he is portrayed as a nerdy geek with an explosive temper. In the speeches, rather than coming across as so powerful and sinister that we can see why disillusioned Germans grabbed onto every word he was saying, he comes across as a bad-tempered, rabied mad man - a caricature. John Cusack here is not Max Rothman. He is not a Jewish art dealer. He is just John Cusack. Which would be fine if this was a laid-back, self-knowing little film but it's not.
This should be the most tense and intense film you'll ever see. Even though we know what path Hitler chooses in the end, we should still be on the edge of our seats willing him to become an angry young artist rather than an angry young war criminal. We should be biting our nails off each time the two debate whether art or politics is greater. This could have been as nerve-wracking as Roman Polanski's Death and the Maiden. In fact, this could have been a brilliant piece of theatre - presuming the dialogue was totally re-written. The direction was flat and anonymous. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting freeeze-frames and bullet-time shots. But it's just so uninspired. It's like direction by numbers. The score was unmemorable and over-used. The production design was unremarkable and unevocative.
I almost forgot to mention Molly Parker and Leelee Sobieski (this in itself tells you how disappointing this film is). Molly Parker is undoubtedly a brave and versatile actress. She was ethereal and enigmatic as the necrophiliac in Kissed and pulled off a London accent better than any American/Canadian actress ever (forget Gwyneth Paltrow) for her excellent supporting role in Michael Winterbottom's underrated Wonderland. Here, as Max's wife, she is underused and wasted in a pointless and unformed role. Sobieski is also wasted as Max's mistress. Her 5 minutes in Eyes Wide Shut is ten times better than her 15 minutes here. Again, the fault is in the character.
The film is not unbearably crap, it's just unbearably unremarkable and mediocre.
Please call me Kid A.
