Luke McWilliams gives his verdict on the 2020 biographical drama, Resistance, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Clémence Poésy.
In 1938 Munich, a young Jewish girl witnesses the death of her parents at the hands of the Nazis. Flashing forward to 1945 in Nuremberg, General Patton (Ed Harris) starts to tell an audience of soldiers the story of a young mime who performed a miracle. Flashing back again to 1938, in Strasbourg, the young aspiring mime artist, Marcel Mangel (Jesse Eisenberg) agrees to help his cousin George (Géza Röhrig) and the beautiful Emma (Clémence Poésy) in looking after 123 Jewish orphans escaping France.
The World Wars are mines for stories covering themes of cruelty, suffering, heroism and humanity. Cynically speaking, they pop up around mid-to-late year to compete for Oscar season. Resistance defines itself by following the world-famous mime Mangel (aka Marcel Marceau) into the French Resistance to save a generation of Jewish children from the Nazi forces.
Eisenberg, who was perfectly cast as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, delves back into his hand dexterity talents from Now You See Me. Eisenberg displays the optimism of a man who wants to follow his dreams of being an artist but uses his talents for a higher purpose. Matthias Schweighöfer’s odious Gestapo agent, Klaus Barbie, brings tension a la Christoph Waltz’s Oscar-winning turn in Inglourious Basterds. A new father,Barbie is contrarily dogged in his attempts at capturing escaping Jewish children.
Verdict: While a strong production of an important, amazing story with an impressive turn from Eisenberg, the movie is very similar to others of the genre. 3.5 stars.
- Luke McWilliams | themovieclub.net
Resistance is available to rent from Foxtel Store and will be in cinemas from 22 June.
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