Cast: Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, Rupert Friend, David Hayman, Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon and Amber Beattie
Director: Mark Herman
Studio Synopsis: Eight year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield) is the sheltered son of a Nazi officer (David Thewlis) whose promotion takes the family from their comfortable home in Berlin to a desolate area where the lonely boy finds nothing to do and no-one to play with. Crushed by boredom and compelled by curiosity, Bruno ignores his mother’s repeated instructions not to explore the back garden and heads for the ‘farm’ he has seen in the near distance. There he meets Shmuel (Jack Scalon), a boy his own age who lives a parallel, alien existence on the other side of a barbed wire fence. Bruno's encounter with the boy in the striped pajamas leads him from innocence to a dawning awareness of the adult world around them as his meetings with Shmuel develop into a friendship with devastating consequences.
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 93 minutes
Official Web site: http://www.boyinthestripedpajamas.com/
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/theboyinthe
stripedpajamas/

The Verdict: Parents wanting to discuss the Holocaust with their young children have a perfect opening with this hauntingly sad tale told from the perspective of a 8-year-old German boy. Adapted from John Boyne's novel by Little Voice director Mark Herman with great sensitivity and uncommon fearlessness, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas details the relationship that inexplicably develops between the son of a Nazi officer and a Jewish boy imprisoned at Auschwitz. Bruno (Asa Butterfield), who mistakes the concentration camp his father runs for a farm, befriends Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) without his parents' knowledge. While Shmuel has seen things no child his age should, neither he nor Bruno really know what goes on in the camp or have any idea of Hitler's plans for the prisoners. This allows Herman to explore various aspects of the Second World War--including Hitler's anti-Semitic beliefs, his efforts to rewrite history and brainwash the masses with propaganda, and the persecution and extermination of Jews--in a simple but direct and effective manner that will allow preteens to come away with a strong grasp of the magnitude of Hitler's cruelty. Kids will see themselves in Bruno and Shmuel, who tackle their challenging roles with confidence and curiosity. Parents, though, will begrudgingly identify with Bruno's overprotective mother (Vera Farmiga). While Farmiga's Elsa clearly represents all good Germans--she doesn't condone or condemn what happens in Auschwitz--she comes to serve as the voice of parental concern as the film questions how far a mother or father should go to shield their children from life's hard truths. Bearing this in mind, the unforgettable ending--the harshest and most heartbreaking in years, but necessarily so--will leave you sobbing but also having to explain what just happened to any of your children left puzzled by the proceedings. And that's clearly what Herman wants.
—Robert Sims