Writer & Director
Jonathan Jakubowicz

Starring
Jesse Eisenberg, Clémence Poésy, Félix Moati, Matthias Schweighöfer and Bella Ramsey

Resistance is the true story of French mime actor and artist Marcel Marceau’s involvement in saving the lives of 123 orphaned Jewish children whose parents were killed by the Nazis in WWII.

Told mostly from the perspective of Marcel (played here by a somewhat miscast Jesse Eisenberg), Resistance actually begins by introducing us to a young girl, Elsbeth (GOT’s Bella Ramsey) who will sadly become an orphan as we watch. Then, writer and director Jonathan Jakubowicz (Hands of Stone) relocates his film from Munich, Nazi Germany, 1938 to Nuremburg in 1945 as General Patton (a minor and thankless role filled by Ed Harris) introduces and tells Marcel’s story, which begins in Strasbourg, France, 1938. This disjointed opening is unfortunately a minor indication of the major mishandling of later proceedings to come.

Resistance is a strange shortfall of a movie. During its first half before Marcel, his brother (Félix Moati) and love interest (Clémence Poésy), among others, flee Strasbourg and the Nazi’s, Resistance is almost light-hearted and feel-good in tone. The screenplay spends time establishing many of Marcel’s personal relationships, career ambitions and how he would use his miming, his art in war, to connect with and make the orphaned children feel safe. Though there are certainly some nice scenes, I could never get used to the inconsistent execution of the accents, or Jesse Eisenberg’s performance, which was a huge distraction for me. Furthermore, it felt as though I was waiting much longer than I needed to for the story I came to see transpire. Bad news is, when it finally does arrive, Resistance surprisingly declines further.

Almost immediately, the escape and experiences of the central characters, which now include ruthless Gestapo agent Klaus Barbie (a very good Matthias Schweighöfer), becomes heavily contrived and over-dramatised. There is so much inherent suspense and captivating drama in this true story, yet it is quite evident that the person calling the shots here is inexplicably unaware of that. His attempts to elicit greater tension and amplify the drama in several sequences throughout the second half of the film only succeed at exposing their improbabilities.

Despite my canning of this movie, I still always cared to see how the fate of these characters would conclude. This is one of the very few reasons I can still give an average rating to Resistance.

2 ½ stars


Viewer Discretion
M (Mature themes and violence)

Trailer
Resistance

Moviedoc thanks Rialto Distribution and Annette Smith: Ned & Co Marketing and Publicity for providing the screener link to watch and review this film.

Resistance is now available to rent via the Foxtel store, will show in selected cinemas from 22 June and will be available to rent via iTunes, Google Play, Sony (Playstation Network), Microsoft (Xbox Network), Foxtel PPV, Bigpond, Fetch and Quickflix from 29 July.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc
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