Review: Jojo Rabbit

Jojo Rabbit (12A)

New Zealand/USA 2019  108 mins  Dir: Taika Waititi  Cast: Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Taika Waititi, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Rebel Wilson, Stephen Merchant, Archie Yates

“Get your things together, kids,” exhorts cheerleading instructor Fräulein Rahm (Wilson), “it’s time to burn some books!” Hordes of excited pint-sized Nazis squeal with joy as they build a bonfire. Yes, life sure is fun in the Hitler Youth boot camp run by bitter, one-eyed Captain Klenzendorf (Rockwell). Enthusiastic ten-year-old Johannes ‘Jojo’ Betzler (Davis), who’s “massively into swastikas”, gets to play with guns and draw the scales and fangs on caricatures of ‘der Jude’ like a pre-pubescent Borat. An eager, wide-eyed consumer of Third Reich propaganda, young Jojo also benefits from a chirpy, motivational, inappropriately cigarette-proffering imaginary friend: Adolf Hitler (director Taika Waititi, giving the führer the full Charlie Chaplin).

Bad taste? Wait till you see the opening sequence of what the Daily Telegraph has dubbed the ‘Disney Hitler Movie’, which intersperses pratfalls with archive WWII footage cut to the Fabs’ Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand (Paul McCartney took some persuading to permit its use, apparently). Comedies about Nazis have a long and noble history, from The Great Dictator to The Producers (which, of course, made a virtue of its bad taste). But they can also go horribly wrong. Nobody will ever persuade this reviewer that Roberto Benigni’s sentimental Oscar winner Life Is Beautiful is anything other than unremittingly awful. And Jerry Lewis’s legendary Holocaust clown flick, The Day the Clown Cried, remains locked in a drawer somewhere.

In very loosely adapting Christine Leunens’ Hitler-free novel Caging Skies for the screen, Kiwi Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi returns to the deadpan sensibility he brought to What We Do in the Shadows as his film navigates its way through some alarming tonal shifts, providing plenty of ammo for detractors and those who enjoy the great modern social media sport of offence taking. After that daring first reel, however, Jojo Rabbit settles in to a fairly predictable story arc in which the young protagonist has his worldview challenged.

Having failed to kill a rabbit on command – hence his nickname – outcast Jojo manages to blow himself up and now has to spend more time at home with his single mum, Rosie (Johansson). A member of the resistance who’s appalled by her son’s bloodthirsty embrace of fascism but keeps quiet for fear of being turned in by him (though this doesn’t stop her calling the boy ‘Shitler’), she has a big secret: stashed away in a hidden room at the top of the house is a teenage Jewish girl named Elsa Korr (McKenzie). When Jojo happens upon Elsa, she prevents him turning her over to sinister Gestapo officer Deertz (a splendidly cast, crocodile-smiling, Heil Hitler-ing Stephen Merchant, who’s gifted the line: “I wish more of our young boys had your blind fanaticism”) by pointing out that his mum would be carted off too if he did so. An uneasy stand-off develops as fearful Jojo demands disclosure of Elsa’s ‘Jew secrets’ for his work-in-progress field guide to Jews, Yoo-Hoo Jew. Naturally, she’s happy to oblige with outlandish stories. It’s not long before he’s started to develop feelings for her. Needless to say, tantrum-prone Imaginary Hitler is not best pleased. Meanwhile, corpses are swinging from gallows outside in the town square…

Clearly, there’s little here for those who take the view that fascism and anti-Semitism are inappropriate subjects for comedy, while others may consider that Waititi tumbles off the tonal tightrope on which he balances so precariously. But for the receptive, Jojo Rabbit is also enormously funny, its broad comic performances from the likes of Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Stephen Merchant and the director himself being balanced by more complex and emotional ones by Scarlett Johansson and especially Thomasin McKenzie as the strong, sweet-natured Elsa, building on her breakout role in Leave No Trace. As for the nippers, Waititi proved with Hunt for the Wilderpeople that’s he’s adept at coaxing strong performances from children, so it comes as no surprise to find that Roman Griffin Davis anchors the film adeptly in a tricky role as the kid who battles through indoctrination to find his humanity, though he’s frequently in danger of being upstaged by the delightful performance from Archie Yates as Jojo’s portly pal and fellow Hitler Youth, Yorki. Delightfully, there’s even room for a woeful German shepherd gag.