Jesse Eisenberg’s Marcel Marceau proves much more than a silent witness to Nazi atrocities

The story of Marcel Marceau's wartime heroism – helping to rescue of thousands of Jewish children from Nazi-occupied France – is one that deserves to better known. This account of the French Jewish mime artist's exploits from director Jonathan Jakubowicz will certainly help, although it is at times pedestrian and clichéd.

It gets off to a dodgy start, with the problematical device of topping and tailing the action at a 1945 awards ceremony, where US General Patton (Ed Harris) recounts Marceau’s heroism. Flash back to 1938 and the French border town of Strasbourg, caught in a sepia glow evoking silent film. Marcel Mangel (Jesse Eisenberg) performs in a cabaret club, delighting all as a Chaplinesque Hitler – all but his father (Karl Markovics), who has discovered his son’s aspirations, much to his consternation (the family butcher shop won’t be safe in his hands).

There’s real border tension as Jewish scouts and volunteers smuggle traumatised German Jewish youngsters into France. It takes Mangel’s playful mime to cut through their terror just to get them off the lorry and the rescuers eagerly persuade him to throw in his lot with them. Clown Hitler comes into his own during fun with a serious purpose – teaching kids to climb trees and hang out in the branches in total silence. It’s no surprise that this exercise proves useful at the film’s tension-laden climax. We also witness the empathy of young women volunteers persuading the kids to strip, bathe and don scouts uniforms, which is beautifully caught by Clémence Poésy’s Emma and Vica Kerekes’ Mila.

The threat of German invasion becomes a reality and the border towns are no longer safe. In a scene designed to pluck heartstrings, the children learn to sing the haunting song welcoming the Sabbath angels and the shofar (the iconic ram’s horn) is blown. Contrast that with the children, now billeted in a Lyons convent, learning to sing 'Ave Maria' as part of their camouflage. Then cut to infamous Nazi Klaus Barbie (terrifying Matthias Schweighöfer), living up to his nickname ‘The Butcher of Lyons’ as he relishes gunning down captives in an empty swimming pool.

Meanwhile Mangel proves a dab hand at passport forging too and, lo, he is reborn as Marceau. His circus skills prove to be almost superpowers as his fire-eating confounds the Nazis, who find themselves (literally) in hot pursuit. In one of the best scenes, the tension is ratcheted up on a train as Barbie is apparently charmed by a carriage full of those cute scouts singing ‘Ave Maria’, but still subjects Marceau to an ‘in yer face’ interrogation.

Flight through the snowy French Alps to attempt to get the children to the safety of the Swiss Alps is the undoubted climax, but it's somewhat diluted by the anti-climax of that built-in post-war ending where Marceau duly receives his honour from Patton and gets to perform to massed ranks of troops. What is not in doubt, however, is the appeal of Eisenberg’s convincingly skilful Marceau and the equally appealing charm of the escapees, led by excellent young Brit Bella Ramsey. Resistance has its awkward moments but, as Marceau would mime, its heart is in the right place.

By Judi Herman

Resistance is available to stream on UKJF On Demand for £9.99, featuring a Q&A with Jesse Eisenberg and director Jonathan Jakubowicz.