This is just not that great of a movie. I guess I had big expectations and was let down on of this just not being my thing. The best part I found was the dark irony in a lot of the dialogue. In the beginning, they talk about how hot it is riding the train and how cold the winters are (as citizens living comfortably). Of course this is meant as an extreme ironic disregard for what Jews actually went through in those conditions. There's also so much irony surrounding the family's deepest wishes to stay, when the only thing anyone else would want to do is leave.

The film is pretty unsettling, especially the way Glazer decides not to actually show anything inside Auschwitz. Despite these interesting takes and the historical context, the film lacks any conflict related to the main plot for almost half the movie. I get that there is technical conflict in the form of what's going on around them, but there is no conflict or plot drives within the central story of the family until over an hour in. It made for a pretty slow movie for me. Additionally, by the end of the film, I felt like nothing even happened; there was such little actual progress in the film that I barely took anything away in the end.

There are a few scenes that stood out, specifically the chimney at night scene and garden ashes scene, but I don't understand the point of trying to humanize this terrible family.

30/100