The Counterfeiters.

"At its best - and queasiest - The Counterfeiters asks disturbing questions more commonly found in the survivor literature of Primo Levi or Bruno Bettelheim than at the movies," writes Ella Taylor in the Voice. "Without resorting to the crassly relativist reversals in Paul Verhoeven's idiotic Black Book (treacherous resisters! sensitive Nazis! who knew?), [director and co-writer Stefan] Ruzowitzky quietly asks what counts as moral behavior under fascism, and whether or not one's first duty is to survive."

"Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, The Counterfeiters manages to be devastating without a hint of sentimentality," writes Raphaela Weissman in the New York Press. "Ruzowitzky's straightforward approach to this unusual story and cinematographer Benedict Neunfels's documentary-style immediacy transcend the now well-worn Holocaust genre, bringing another side of the tragedy into unflinching focus."

Updated through 2/22.

"Though once Holocaust dramas were considered something of a tough sell, for art-house crowds this genre is the closest thing to a known quantity," writes Michael Koresky at indieWIRE. "And Ruzowitzky's technique is as predictable as his subject... [W]hat else would one expect from the director of the gross-out German horror flicks Anatomy and Anatomy 2? Exploitation, it seems, comes in many forms."

"On its own limited terms, it's watchable if unedifying," writes Robert Cashill. "As an Academy Award nominee, it's a phony."

For Filmmaker, Nick Dawson talks with Ruzowitzky "about the movie's moral complexities, his Nazi grandparents and rescuing his school play aged 10."

The Reeler meets Ruzowitzky as well; and Robert W Welkos profiles him for the Los Angeles Times.

Earlier: Reviews from the UK; and Bill Weber in Slant.

Updates, 2/22: "The Counterfeiters is a swift and suspenseful thriller, and perhaps a little too entertaining for its own good," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. "I suppose that is a built-in dilemma of the Holocaust movie as a genre. Filmmakers either try to take the full, horrible measure of the subject, at the risk of overwhelming or alienating a modern audience, or else, in trying to make the story bearable, they subvert its truth. The Counterfeiters, in the manner of its flawed, fascinating hero, tries in good faith to navigate this ethically treacherous ground. That it succeeds more than it fails owes something to Mr Ruzowitsky's skill and good sense, and even more to his lead actor's instinct and conviction."

"While Ruzowitzky's script occasionally suffers from the theatrical instinct to give each character his big breakdown - the chance to overturn or break something in a frenzy of despair - the story is tightly woven and urgently drawn," writes Michelle Orange in the Reeler.

"The Counterfeiters' look at the mechanics of currency duplication is fascinating, but the real drama of the film is the conflict that develops between Sorowitsch [Karl Markovics] and another member of the team, printer Adolf Burger (August Diehl)," writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times.

"Markovics largely rescues the film with his mesmerizingly layered, steady performance as a man who solves the problem of compromise by refusing to admit that he's compromising," writes Tasha Robinson at the AV Club.

"Like Schindler's List, it's a Holocaust movie... with hope," writes Andy Klein in the LA CityBeat. "It's serious, but it's also conventional and commercially slick."

"The contest between the idealist and the survival artist seems to me the heart of this movie," writes Richard Schickel for Time. "The former is willing, even eager, to sacrifice all of his fellow prisoners (or should we call them his colleagues?) for his principles. The latter insists that a man's first duty is to live, which is the natural precondition for - perhaps - doing something useful later, should the opportunity arise. I'm with Salomon. When you're dead, you're dead."

Posted by dwhudson at February 21, 2008 8:44 AM