Love in the time of Hitler.
Today we recognize that as a heroic act, halfway to sainthood.
The movie tracks how Franzs unmutuality threatens to tear his beautiful world apart.
Reiner Bajo/Fox Searchlight
In the beginning, all is well.
Franz and his wife, Fani (Valerie Pachner), are farmers in the village of Radegund.
How green is their valley and then Fani hears the distant sound of a fighter plane.
For a long time, everything still looks postcard-pretty.
But the local townspeople are complaining about swarming foreigners.
Neighbors start demanding a Nazi salute.
There are refugees in the forest.
Franz would prefer not to.
Were killing innocent people, he complains, preying on the weak.
Its a dangerous time to protest, even for men of the cloth.
Franz takes his case to the bishop (Michael Nyqvist), who offers no respite.
The war effort obeys no law of god; they are melting church bells for bullets.
Radegund turns against Franz.
Some people are true believers in the cause.
Mostly, theyre frustrated that he wont just go along like everyone else.
Refusal to take the oath will mean death and what will happen to his family?
Will there be reprisals against his village?
Hes just one person, though, and hes not even properly fighting anyone.
What purpose does it serve?
A Hidden Lifecombines familiar elements from many of Malicks movies.
The painterly farmhouse recalls 1978sDays of Heaven.
There is an obvious problem will Franz go through with his great refusal?
which connects vividly to larger matters.
When have our prayers not been answered?
He wont send us more than we can bear.
Hitlers a character too, glimpsed in eerie newsreel footage.
(In one clip, the terrible dictator plays with an adoring child.)
There are incredible performances that could be short films unto themselves.
A Hidden Lifeis long, cusping on three hours, and sheer repetition dulls some of its potent power.
His work is handsome and a tad too dutiful.
The cast speaks a mixture of German and ahistoric English.
Notably, some of the nastiest Nazi lines are in German, while actual husband-to-wife love letters are translated.
(A more topical move, sadly, wouldve been making English the language of fascism.)
Franz is passive by nature, and merely not doing the wrong thing sends him down a brutal path.
You might think he has fallen so far, unshaven, beaten, locked away.
But I am free, he says.
We must honor his liberation, here in our own prison.Grade: B+
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