d-imdb

Robards delivers a wonderful performance as an aging Jewish man who was sent away from Germany aged 16 in 1932 by his parents, for his own safety. He'd befriended a high-born non-Jewish boy his age prior to his departure. He returns to Germany to find out what happened to his friend. The ending is surprising and very deeply moving as a result of the significant, lengthy, and gratifying cinematic demonstration of their growing friendship as boys.

I picked up Hornby's book when it was first issued and enjoyed it immensely, so I was looking forward to seeing it on the screen. But I feared that the film treatment would butcher the book and that I'd be disappointed. Not so. I was very pleased. The directing and acting was spookily faithful to the book. This is a very human story of one man's confusion as he tries to define and then find and then hold onto true love. One of the lessons he learns is that self-acceptance has to come first. Go see it; you won't be disappointed unless perhaps you're a hung-up perfectionist.