Apt Pupil
Apt Pupil
Neighborhood boy Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) discovers that an old man living on his block named Arthur Denker (Sir Ian Mackellan) is a Nazi war criminal. Bowden confronts Denker and offers him a deal: Bowden will not go to the authorities if Denker tells him stories of the concentration camps in World War II. Denker agrees and Bowden starts visiting him regularly. The more stories Bowden hears, the more it affects his personality.
匚卂尺ㄥ reviewedFebruary 20, 2025
Based on a Steven King novella this is a chilling and disturbing tale which explores the pervasive nature of evil and poses the question whether its presence and manifestation is due to nature or nurture. Set in suburban America the highly unlikely conceit is that a bright middle-class teenage boy notices a curious resemblance between an old man living in his neighbourhood and the face of a Nazi officer contained within wartime photographs he has been researching for a school project. The confirmation comes early in the film and within a tense atmosphere of blackmail and suspicion there develops a disquieting co-dependence between the two protagonists. Ian McKellan’s sublime performance as the unrepentant chain-smoking war criminal is almost matched by that of Bran Renfro as the manipulative youngster obsessed by Nazism and the Holocaust. There are some notable scenes and that involving the SS uniform is perhaps the most intense as it encapsulates the power dynamics between the two. An impressive film, quietly understated but nevertheless powerful.