With an imaginary friend like Adolf, who needs enemies?
I’m not sure if Marmite was available in wartime Germany, but Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit certainly divides audiences and critics. A coming of age comedy whose 10-year-old hero fails in his aspirations to become a ruthlessly efficient member of the Hitler Youth, despite having Adolf himself as his imaginary friend, might sound problematical enough. This one also features an Anne Frank figure that his single mother is hiding in her attic.
I may be passionate about Mel Brooks’ The Producers (not above joining in with ‘Springtime for Hitler’) and a fan of Roberto Benigni’s whimsical Holocaust-set comedy Life is Sweet, but even I was wondering whether this one could possibly be for me (and a UK Jewish Film Festival audience, as the closing night film choice). In the event, at the screening I attended, the audience around me were notably young – and very enthusiastic. Did their appreciative laughter influence me? I’d like to think not.
Suffice it to say that from the moment I realised that the soundtrack to black-and-white footage of Germans cheering and saluting Hitler was The Beatles ‘Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand’ ('I Wanna Hold Your Hand'), Nazism or Beatlemania, I was in.
Waititi starts as he means to go on. Tom Waits’ ‘I Don’t Want to Grow Up’ accompanies young Johannes 'Jojo' Betzler’s initiation into the Hitler Youth by the dreadful duo of Rebel Wilson’s Aryan iron maiden and Sam Rockwell’s superannuated stormtrooper. Roy Orbison’s ‘Mama’ underscores the bonding cycle ride shared by Jojo and his mum Rosie (warmly sympathetic Scarlett Johansson). That’s not to say there’s no music from the film’s wartime setting, plus atmospheric original music by Michael Giacchino, but daringly imaginative fun with the music is entirely in keeping with Waititi’s chutzpah.
For me the question is what’s not to like about a film with a through line as clear, and performances as strong, as the story is wild and whacky.
These are the last months of the war and Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis perfect in his baffled naiveté), is horrified and fascinated in equal measures by the all too real antagonist he discovers in the attic in the shape of hidden Jew Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie). This knowing young woman ably provides him with a reality check to offset the comic posturing of his imaginary Führer (played to the heil Hitler hilt by Waititi himself).
Perhaps it’s because the budding Übermenschen in the Hitler Youth have been relentless in their mocking of the hapless new recruit, dubbing him Jojo Rabbit, perhaps because his feisty real best friend Yorki, reminiscent of Piggy in Lord of the Flies, is another misfit, but it’s not giving much away to reveal that Jojo and Yorki come through. They survive the allied bombing of Berlin, and even the scary attentions of Stephen Merchant’s comically creepy Gestapo interrogator, to be first in line when the victorious Allied troops hand out chocolate on the city’s bombed-out streets.
As the credits rolled to David Bowie’s 'Helden' ('Heroes') – sung in German by the man himself – it was evident that Jojo Rabbit had spanned the ages and I, along with the majority of the theatre, applauded enthusiastically. The Third Reich can – and probably should – be a laughing matter.
By Judi Herman
Jojo Rabbit is released in UK cinemas Wednesday 1 January. Visit tickets.jojorabbit.com to find your nearest screening.