I really wanted to love this film (at least as much as one can love a film about terrorized Jews), but Defiance fails to deliver what could have been a solid movie experience. It is entertaining enough, but the writing just isn’t very good. It is easy to identify poor writing when we find actors struggling to know what to do with lines (fault of the actors, perhaps?). The writing is especially bad at the beginning (poor Jamie Bell, who actually isn’t half bad in the film, has probably some of the worst lines at the start).
Thankfully, as the story moves along the writing isn’t as distracting (machine gun fire tends to help get one’s mind off bad scripting). Unfortunately, the screenwriters tend to fall into the monologue and soliloquy trap, telling us what they should instead be showing us through touch, action, or circumstances.
I guess my biggest frustration with the film is that a story like this one should have touched a nerve and, sadly, it didn’t. The music was basically non-existent, which might have been another important reason it didn’t touch my heart. I think history buffs will like this film, but as for everyone else it will appear as a mere blip on their cinematic radar before being forgotten (which is, perhaps, the most heartbreaking thing to say about a film telling a truly courageous story).
