”
Max
”
is a hideous, horrible, historical fantasy that claims greatness
by its miniscule budget and transcendent ideas about art. It seems
to exist solely for the purpose of being sold as an art-house
picture, one that people can feel noble by going to see.
“Max” is a hideous, horrible, historical fantasy that claims greatness by its miniscule budget and transcendent ideas about art. It seems to exist solely for the purpose of being sold as an art-house picture, one that people can feel noble by going to see.
It’s a wretched film, and one that defies logic, because the performers are so notable. Great actors John Cusack (who produced) and Noah Taylor signed on, and it’s hard to believe that they actually read the script and thought something of substance was there.
“Max” is being sold as a dark comedy, complete with ironic punch lines that fall flat. The comic timing is written into the script and the rhythm of the performances; when a character says something that’s supposedly clever or witty (“I gave at the office” is a good one) there’s actually silence in the script that allows for the audience to laugh. No laughs here, just amazingly awkward silence.
“Max” is the fictional story of two friends whose lives come together after coming home from World War I. One of them, Max Rothman (John Cusack) is a painter who loses his painting arm in the war. Max now works as a gallery owner, and he runs his art business out of an abandoned railroad building. Supposedly a champion of modernism, which supports the idea that art and the technology of machines are universally connected, Max sees himself as something of a champion of the “new type of modern artist.”
Max is Jewish and living in Germany, where anti-Semitism is running rampant. One day, he meets and befriends a whiny, mumbling rat of a man, Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor), who also has just returned after fighting in the war. In this film, the young, 30-ish Hitler is presented as a struggling artist, hoping to use Max to get his work shown at an art exhibition. Max becomes the ultimate father figure, seeing “promise” in Hitler’s painting, but encourages the young man to try to go deeper with his work. An awful painter, Hitler tries, but Max never sees enough to believe his young friend is ready to show, or sell, his art.
Furious, Hitler starts to focus his energies elsewhere, namely public speaking, which in the film is treated like a joke. A German captain (Ulrich Thomsen) in the army pities Hitler and decides to encourage him to spew his defamation of the Jews to the public. Nobody listens until Hitler speaks to a large audience of soldiers who just experienced defeat.
Blaming the Jews for Germany’s economic fate (and the fact that he can’t sell a painting), Hitler creates a base that allows him to start getting his message across to those who will eventually make him the most notorious man of the 20th century.
Cusack plays Max as a quiet, reflective guy who really has no personality to speak of; his war experience has definitely left him shell-shocked. But Cusack gives his least-accomplished performance of his amazing career, turning Max into an uncaring husband who hates himself, his wife (Molly Parker) and his beautiful mistress (Leelee Sobieski, whose screen time is remarkably brief). For the first time, Cusack seems unable to find the central core of his character, and he sleeps through this role.
Noah Taylor portrays Hitler as a whiny, mumbling idiot, certainly nothing like the man who possessed enough intelligence to win the hearts and minds of much of his country over the next 15 years leading up to World War II.
The film tries to make the point that we may have been able to stop Hitler’s rise if we just would have understood the economic potential of his art, which is preposterous.
MAX. Written and directed by Menno Meyjes. With John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Molly Parker, Ulrich Thomsen and Leelee Sobieski. Rated R (language, profanity, suggested sex), 108 minutes. Now playing at Bay Area theaters.
