The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Critic Reviews

Viewers should know that the film's resolution, though admirably restrained and unsentimental, is devastatingly sad. Parents should take this into account. This beautifully rendered family film is told in a classic and old-fashioned style, in the best sense, providing poignant and powerful teachable moments.Read the full review

Opening half-hour has some of the best stuff in the movie, walking a precarious line between black irony and showing the war from a totally German viewpoint, without tipping over into gallows humor or parody.Read the full review

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas should be heartbreaking, but it isn't. The muted quality of its impact is the result of narrative shortcuts and a desire to keep the images from being too startling.Read the full review

The film succeeds to the degree that it does -- partially, but honorably and sometimes affectingly -- because it was made as well as it was.Read the full review

Although it's a far less objectionable Holocaust revision than, say, Roberto Benigni's "Life Is Beautiful," Herman's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is yet another attempt to revisit a sorrowful event in history that should never be forgotten or used for entertainment.Read the full review

An appalling, jaw-dropping movie that will cause serious nightmares.Read the full review

See the Holocaust trivialized, glossed over, kitsched up, commercially exploited and hijacked for a tragedy about a Nazi family. Better yet and in all sincerity: don't.Read the full review

Told from a different angle than any other Holocaust film I've seen.Read the full review

The power of this Holocaust tale sneaks up and floors you.Read the full review