Max
is the directorial debut of Menno Meyjes, (scribe of a number of successful films
including Spielberg’s The Color Purple) has managed to tastefully pose this
fascinating piece of speculative history about the pre-Maniacal days of Adolf
Hitler. The story centers more around the title character, Max Rothman, played
well (if not a bit too studied) by John Cusack whom prior to World War I was a
promising Modernist painter. Returning to Munich minus one arm, Rothman successfully
sets up an art-scene and dealership in an abandoned train station. A family man
with a supportive wife, children and a healthy relationship with his mistress
Leelee Sobieski, Rothman happens onto a angry, yet fascinatingly intelligent young
artist who was a fellow War veteran by the name of Adolf Hitler.
The
film imagines a set of circumstances that are amazingly compelling from a number
of standpoints. Max posits the manner whereby Hitler acquires his ethno-political
ideology and the random happenstance that vaults him and his passionate beliefs
before a dispirited nation ready to grasp onto anything to restore their national
pride after the humiliation that resulted from their WWI defeat and the harsh
conditions of the Treaty of Versailles. The film does not seek to either apologize
nor demonize the infamous Nazi monster, but rather places Hitler into situations
where every decision he makes has potentially enormous consequences on the history
of the world. The origins of the German obsession with anti-Semitism and ethnic
cleansing is handled with remarkable finesse due to the intelligence and restraint
of Meyjes script. Much praise must also go to Noah Taylor’s wonderfully nuanced
performance of this solitary and disturbed man turned his intrinsically artistic
nature into the beginnings of the most unGodly cult of personality in world History.
The
scenes between Cusack and Taylor are full of fascinating exchanges of ideas and
passionate opinions regarding art and society and brazenly suggests that had Cusack’s
character not been coerced, Hitler would be remembered for his painting rather
than the most ugly legacy that any man has left behind. Cusack was very instrumental
in bringing this film about (he serves as associate producer) and he is to be
commended for having the guts to push this film into existence, I watched it three
times in one day.
