The timing for my watching this movie was unfortunate; I have recently seen three movies on related subject of the Holocaust, so I was not disposed in being entirely objective. That being said, this movie did offer an original take; it included a moving relation between a man saving a young Jewish boy from the well known fate of the rest of his family. The boy, Young Jakob, is played by Robbie Kay, who performs well, certainly thanks to the direction of Jeremy Podeswa (Boardwalk Empire) who also wrote the script from Anne Michael's novel; Kay portrays what it was to live in the haunting memory of the family he could not extinguish from his mind and in particular the memory of his 15 year old sister Bella, played by the beautiful and charming Nina Dobrev.
The movie does not follow a formal timeline not even in its flashbacks and in the scenes when both young Jakob and older Jakob has visions of his sister; she had an indelible mark on Jakob. The story also goes back and forth intermittently showing how devoted, kind and understanding the boy's savior, Athos, was and how he helped shape his future. The actors do a splendid job, but I found it was a bit too melodramatic at times. Perhaps the introverted character of older Jakob, played by Stephen Dillane, was what made the melodrama a bit more than I cared to see. It does not take away from his performance; I just was not in the best mood for this. He became a writer, encouraged by Athos, and predictably, his writings dealt with subject relating to the loss and effects of the loss of his family in WWII.
Rade Serbedzija, who plays Athos Roussos, Jakob's savior, performs his part very well, but it seems he always plays that very same character in so many of his movies; at least here I liked how he was, for all intent and purpose, a damn good father figure for Jakob. I won't forget the mature Jakob's love interests, Alex, played by the talented and delicious Rosamund Pike, who's zest for life was too much for the melancholic Jakob; thankfully he later is introduced to the gorgeous Michaela, played by Ayelet Zurer, a kindred spirit who unleashes in Jakob the desire for love and life in ways the viewer was likely to believe he was incapable of finding. The ending was unexpectedly a happy one, well not the sad one we could have expected before Michaela's introduction; it was the redeeming factor, which makes me okay with recommending it, providing the storyline is one that does not turn you off. p.s. The scenery of the Greek Islands where a good part of the story takes place will make you wish you lived there.
The movie does not follow a formal timeline not even in its flashbacks and in the scenes when both young Jakob and older Jakob has visions of his sister; she had an indelible mark on Jakob. The story also goes back and forth intermittently showing how devoted, kind and understanding the boy's savior, Athos, was and how he helped shape his future. The actors do a splendid job, but I found it was a bit too melodramatic at times. Perhaps the introverted character of older Jakob, played by Stephen Dillane, was what made the melodrama a bit more than I cared to see. It does not take away from his performance; I just was not in the best mood for this. He became a writer, encouraged by Athos, and predictably, his writings dealt with subject relating to the loss and effects of the loss of his family in WWII.
Rade Serbedzija, who plays Athos Roussos, Jakob's savior, performs his part very well, but it seems he always plays that very same character in so many of his movies; at least here I liked how he was, for all intent and purpose, a damn good father figure for Jakob. I won't forget the mature Jakob's love interests, Alex, played by the talented and delicious Rosamund Pike, who's zest for life was too much for the melancholic Jakob; thankfully he later is introduced to the gorgeous Michaela, played by Ayelet Zurer, a kindred spirit who unleashes in Jakob the desire for love and life in ways the viewer was likely to believe he was incapable of finding. The ending was unexpectedly a happy one, well not the sad one we could have expected before Michaela's introduction; it was the redeeming factor, which makes me okay with recommending it, providing the storyline is one that does not turn you off. p.s. The scenery of the Greek Islands where a good part of the story takes place will make you wish you lived there.