226. Resistance; movie review

RESISTANCE
Cert 15
121 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong threat

Marcel Marceau, the world-famous mime artist, was a Jewish war hero? Apparently, so.
Not quite as Jonathan Jakubowicz's Resistance would have us believe but he certainly did help save hundreds of lives.
I admired Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of Marceau, who changed his name from Mangel to prevent suspicion by the German occupying forces in France.
He joined the resistance when his parents moved from a French border town and worked with his cousin and many others to smuggle Jewish children into Switzerland.
Eisenberg is great as Marceau. I forgive him a dodgy attempt at a French accent because of his rubbery-limbed impression of the great master as a young clown.
This delights children who are in desperate need of love and laughter having been initially transported from Nazi Germany where their parents have either been murdered or taken away to death camps.
The movie alights upon them in the days prior to the occupation of France and then moves on to wartime and the extreme dangers it brings.
Clémence Poésy plays Marceau's girlfriend Emma who joins him in the resistance while they tentatively find their way in their romance.
However, their relationship and the drama which it engenders is entirely fictional as are great swathes of the movie.
This was particularly disappointing with regard to a tense meeting between Marceau and the infamous butcher of Lyon, Klaus Barbie (Matthias Schweighöfer).
I just didn't understand why the picture's makers decided to go down the path of fiction. Marceau's exploits during the war were dramatic enough to have been compelling.
Instead, the attempt to spin them up only serves to dilute the film's impact and key scenes are exaggerated beyond credibility.
And that is a pity. The French Resistance and Marcel Marceau's role in it are worth telling and this was an opportunity to do just that.
In saying that, as a standalone piece of entertainment, Resistance works and Mrs W and I were both reeled in.
A shame it had such a cursory link to the truth.

Reasons to watch: Uplifting and entertaining war story
Reasons to avoid: Huge liberties taken with the truth

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 7/10

Did you know? Some 15,519 Jewish people tried to enter Switzerland via the Franco-Swiss border between 1939 and 1945. In all, 12,675 were allowed to enter but 2,844 were turned away at the frontier in western Switzerland. 

The final word. Jesse Eisenberg: "I had grown up with stories of my family who died during the war as well as those who survived and this movie was, just in that way, so resonant for me. And for my family as well." The Hollywood News

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