Neon Movie Review - Jojo Rabbit

Marketed as an anti-hate satire, and facing unprecedented levels of hype out of wins at the Toronto International Film Festival and talk of Oscar buzz, director Taika Waititi's latest, Jojo Rabbit, is more a damp quietly burning squib than sensational fizzer.

Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit

It's the story of Jojo "Rabbit" Betzler (a superb turn from Roman Griffin Davis, who exudes confidence in every scene), a wannabe Hitler Youth whose days are haunted by imaginary best friend, a dimwitted Hitler (Waititi) and whose world is turned upside down when he finds his single mum Rosie (Johansson, soft and nurturing) is harbouring a Jew Elsa (a quiet McKenzie, aching with loss, fear, uncertainty and touches of bitterness) in the attic.

Confused and conflicted over what to do thanks to his core inner beliefs, Jojo finds his inner turmoil tough to deal with in the final days of the Third Reich.

While Jojo Rabbit opens with Waititi's trademark fantasy edges and comic touches, the film soon settles into something that resembles a form of disappointment as the satire fails to hit anything resembling scathing.

Perhaps more a soothing bittersweet love story, Waititi's Jojo Rabbit fails to touch on anything that verges on satire's sharpness, making the Nazis buffoons, or buffoons with heart, in something that seems to resemble great British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo (certainly in the case of Stephen Merchant's appallingly Bristolian Gestapo officer).

It's a film that revels in the quirks to start off with, before settling for this more cutesy and softer approach rather than revealing the horror of what transpired.

Whether it's enough to do this because it's through the eyes of a child is debatable, but it's perhaps somewhat morally reprehensible to try and pierce current climates and leanings with its weaker message, as perhaps those involved with the film want to do.

At its heart, Jojo Rabbit lacks the courage of some of its convictions, favouring whimsy over showing Jojo struggling more with his core Nazi beliefs, and making his inevitable epiphany feel unearned.

That's not to say it's without some successes though.

Davis is an incredible lead, a wide-eyed innocent who's able to carry the lighter comedic edges with ease, and who has the requisite softness for the more dramatic interactions with an equally strong McKenzie. Their relationship is obviously key to the film, and the love message that Waititi clearly wants to convey. Equally scenes with McKenzie and Johansson conversing, reflecting and hoping, are quietly enticing.

Rockwell's laissez-faire Nazi, complete with regret over an injury, is endearing, a resentment bubbling under for reasons that are again too spoilery to discuss; and McKenzie's quiet sadness as Elsa is genuinely heartbreaking, a fragility laid bare by an actress unafraid to let the silence speak for her.

There's one moment in the film that's truly devastatingly breathtaking - to say more is to ruin Waititi's directorial flair for the dramatic, but it is easily one of 2019's best on screen sequences.

Elements of Moone Boy and Moonrise Kingdom permeate Jojo Rabbit, but its reluctance to tackle fanaticism, and dogma with anything more than surface level whimsy is disappointing. Conversely, the film truly misses Waititi when he's not on screen, a sign perhaps of the confusion the tones mix.(His final appearances go someway to espousing some of the bilious hate of Hitler, and are terrifying to watch).

Make no mistake, there is a darker version of this film to be made, a film that fulfills more of the promise of Johansson's lamentations that she has lost her son to blind fanaticism as she opines at one point; a film that tackles the horror of the Nazis and overcomes it with the heart of a child and their burgeoning take on reality.

Jojo Rabbit is not it though - while Waititi may have been played into a corner with the best way to develop this passion project, there's much that leaves Jojo Rabbit wanting, a film that promises so much, and buckles, sadly, under the weight of expectation and ultimate execution.