The Counterfeiters (2007)

Brief: Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) is a renowned counterfeiter in 1936 Berlin. He gets caught, and his jail sentence leads to a concentration camp. Toward the end of WWII, the detective who arrested him, Herzog (Devid Striesow), now an SS officer, brings Sally in along with other printing (Adolf Burger, as played by August Diehl), inking (Sebastian Urzendowsky), and bank specialists to perfect the British pound and American dollar in order to finance the war.

A few weeks ago in Ask the AV Club, a reader wondered what the clubbers' problem was with this and other Holocaust movies (it's the third letter, so you've got to scroll). I read the response and started to worry about what would happen when I saw it for myself. Tasha Robinson is right in that the movie presents a story we've never seen before in a way that we have. For the most part, though the material is fresh, the movie seems familiar. Writer-director Stefan Ruzowitzky's script, based on Adolf Burger's book, is facile. It's somewhat strange that it's Burger's book, but his character isn't the hero (at least not in the short term) or even the protagonist. At any rate, Ruzowitsky is too quick to set up Burger and Sally as polar opposites. Sally will do anything to survive, while Burger is so steadfast to his principles that he's willing to get them all killed. If there's anything in between, Ruzowitsky doesn't want you to think about it.

Still, this movie has its good points. Markovics gives an astonishingly cold and reserved performance. He's careful not to reveal any emotion until the last possible moment, making even the slightest twitch of the eye shattering. His will to survive is so strong that he can bend others to it, but we never see why. That's just the way he is. Plus he's got a sexy thing going with his strange, beautiful face.

Combined with Marius Ruhland's fantastic score (he puts aside the stirring strings for a more folk feel) and the amazing lighting that I must attribute to cinematographer Benedict Neuenfels (if this movie was silent, you could understand it entirely from the shifting lighting. I wish I knew who designed the concept because it is beautifully evocative), it's easy to overlook the film's characterization flaws and still get something out of it. It makes me want to read the book, to be honest. B