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Director Donna Deitch provides an infinite library of Holocaust detail, re-creating the period with minute dedication. Haunting images, every costume, every hair, every light and shadow conspire to maintain a sense of desolate desperation. Suspense pervades as escapes fail and mothers with newborns are taken away. Only the magical context of the story, taken from the original children's novel by Jane Yolen, allows for a life-affirming ending. The performances may not be multifaceted but, considering the single-mindedness of the tale, the deep commitment of the actors makes every moment real and meaningful. Dunst seems able to carry a movie herself, and Brittany Murphy is mesmerizing as Hannah's sweet cousin Rivkah.
The message is powerfully direct, but the film avoids extreme violence in deference to young audiences. The theme is enshrined in the Rivkah's words: "We must stay alive to tell everyone what we've been through." Indeed, when Hannah returns to the present, she is a new woman, with a profound love of her culture and a religious respect for the value of all human life. --Lloyd Chesley
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To my surprise, the film proved to be the most riveting and attention-holding movie I can ever recall showing. In it are contained superb acting, eerie (and effective) musical interludes, and a suspense of time-travel that will hold teenagers absolutely spellbound!
Dustin Hoffman's poignant introduction reveals his passion that young people today never forget the holocaust. As long as this film is available to be watched, they won't.
At times, the suffering of the Jews (made personal by Dunst's wonderful performance) pushes the emotional limit of what I felt my students could take. Yet, with craft and artistry, we are spared in "The Devils' Arithmetic" the emotional overload of "Schindler's List". This is as it should be. "The Devil's Arithmetic" is geared to teenagers.
If ever a theme of love, sacrifice, and the horror of hatred needed portrayal outside the realm of religion, one could not do much better than to show this film. What Hannah does for her best friend at the movie's conclusion is as gut-wrenching as it is predictable, and Nazi treatment of the Jews is brutally captured with appropriate reserve--no easy task! In the end, a young Jewish girl who began only with an interest in tattoos learns the lessons of history, tradition, and above all--life's priorities. In a nutshell, how lives and a culture can change in an instant is the strength of "The Devil's Arithmetic".... Read more ›
Hannah is like most contemporary teenagers -- she'd really rather be with friends than participate in her family's Passover Seder.(The fact that it's Passover and she's hanging out watching her friend get a tattoo doesn't even strike her as ironic. Hannah is a child of the '90s.) She grudgingly does go to the Seder, because, well, she doesn't have a choice.
Instead of actually participating, Hannah gets tipsy. Then, things start to get interesting. Devil's Arithmatic is a lesson distguised as a time-travel story. How Hannah ends up in Poland in 1942 isn't important. She's there. And she's rounded up along with everybody else. Suddenly, all those stories old people insist on telling over and over begin to make sense.
The brutality of life in a concentration camp becomes a living breathing thing -- not just a number on her Aunt Eva's arm. Being a Jew begins to have meaning she never imagined. Hannah finds that what you believe can not only give you strength -- it can define you and your world. More importantly, it can give you the knowledge to choose. Choice is power. In the the world of the unnamed camp, one can either choose humanity or spiritual death. Hannah chooses humanity.
I really don't want to reveal too much of the plot, because the twists make Devil's Arithmatic extremely affecting.
Normally, I do not like fiction about the Holocaust. To me, fictionalising the Shoah is disrepectful; it is like lying.
... Read more ›To me, the MOST annoying difference was that they completely removed the whole reason for calling it "The Devil's Arithmetic"! In the book, the girls are taught by a mentor in the concentration camp that they no longer have names and are just a number. To memorize their tattooed numbers, they each create a mnemonic device to remember their numbers easily. In the movie, this is replaced by the "adding and subtracting of Jews" statements made by the camp commandant throughout the film, which does not have the same effect as the device used in the book.
While the choice of Dunst for the part of Hannah is questionable, I was completely bowled over by Brittany Murphy in the role of Rivka...and seeing Louise Fletcher in a kind, caring role for once was a nice touch! All in all, a potentially educational movie, but not half as good as the book!
