Four out of five stars
The Nazis in "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days" are, unlike many of their cinematic predecessors, normal human beings - and they are all the more chilling because of it. They are bureaucrats in suits, they have offices and families, they work for self advancement, and they willingly allow one of the world's great evils to prosper.
The movie, which is a dramatic re-enactment of true events, follows Sophie (played by Julia Jentsch), a student at Munich University, as she is arrested, interrogated and tried in 1943. Sophie and her brother Hans (Fabian Hinrichs) are members of the resistance group the White Rose, and early in the film they are arrested for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets. The rest of the movie follows their journey through the Nazi "justice" system.
The film's focused narrative takes place mostly in the Gestapo office where Sophie is held and interrogated. Sophie initially denies all involvement with the White Rose and covers her tracks with lie upon lie as her interrogator, Robert Mohr (Gerald Alexander Held), pries into her cover story and waits for her to make a mistake. Much of the dialogue is taken from recently discovered transcripts of Sophie's incarceration, and the scenes are tense and believable.
After mounting evidence and a signed confession from her brother destroy Sophie's alibis, she accepts full responsibility for her actions. She is then tried and sentenced by the infamous Nazi judge Richter Dr. Roland Freisler (Andr?© Hennicke) whose shrill party-line ideology stands in sharp contrast to the sentiments voiced by Sophie and Hans.
"Sophie Scholl," the German nominee for best foreign language film at the Academy Awards this year, makes its saintly heroine a person that those of us not canonized by history can relate to. Julia Jentsch is completely believable as a vibrant and responsible college student forced into extraordinary circumstances. Though Sophie's ordeal takes a visible toll on her (in one scene she goes into a bathroom to be alone, breaks down, and then composes herself as a guard tells her to hurry up), she maintains the collected air of someone who knows her position is justified.
Gerald Alexander Held, who also played a Nazi bureaucrat in "Schindler's List" (1993), delivers a subtle performance as the interrogator Robert Mohr. As Mohr attempts to entrap Sophie and prove her guilt we see pangs of doubt on his face. Later, after her guilt is proven, Sophie's obstinate moralizing frustrates Mohr and he repeatedly throws exasperated fits. After one such outburst he collects himself, looks at Sophie and says, with a tinge of regret: "Germany needs people like you. You just need to be reeducated."
During the film a bond, albeit one based on threats, lies and arguments, begins to form between Sophie and Mohr. Beneath his bullying rhetoric we feel a growing sense of admiration. He envies Sophie's convictions because he himself is empty; he has nothing besides his job and the government. His laws are temporary laws; his justifications, like his personality, are hollow.
Though lacking in popcorn movie theatrics and blow 'em up entertainment value, "Sophie Scholl" moves at a brisk pace and keeps the audience's attention. Even though nearly all of the action is verbally-oriented, director Marc Rothemund uses an ominous soundtrack and tracking shots of Sophie being led from place to place to emphasize the danger of her situation and keep the audience in suspense.
Claustrophobic shots of Sophie being led through drab office corridors and the character of Mohr and his co-workers reinforce the idea that a vast injustice is perpetrated beneath the calm veneer of the everyday. A great societal evil was propelled by ordinary people doing ordinary jobs - another day at the office, another paycheck. This aspect keeps the film from seeming irrelevant; surely this mixture of naive and willing complicity still exists.
"Sophie Scholl" presents its issues in the form of a tidy suspense story made all the more impressive because it is true. There are no explosions or gunfights, no masked rebels doling out justice with knives and bombs (for that you'll have to wait until tomorrow and "V for Vendetta"), just an individual with enough moral conviction to defy what is wrong. It is a tense ride, with a lot of big ideas along the way.
