This is a Holocaust movie in the vein of 'The Counterfeiters', but with follow up--the later ends when the concentration camp is liberated, whereas this movie moves between pre-war Germany, a concentration camp during the war, and then the 1950's and 60's.
So here is the premise: how do you survive survivors guilt, especially when you have debased yourself in exchange for your life. Well, it isn't easy, and immediately after WWII, there was not much in the way of treatment available. No antipsychotics, few anxiolytics, and no antidepressants. We really hadn't even managed good studies on psychotherapy or the value of light in exercise as it pertains to mood. So extremely traumatized, fragile people, regardless of their baseline brilliance, were sequestered together, far away from the rest of the world. Best not to see them, was the prevailing philosophy.
Adam (played convincingly by Jeff Goldblum) was a circus performer before the war. He was a clown--which means that he was clever and talented, but maybe not a man with a depth of psychological resources. He survives the was by becoming the camp commandant's second dog, living on all fours, competing with the other dog for food and watching his fellow prisoners march off to the gas chambers day by day. The commandant (portrayed pitch perfect by Willem Dafoe) teases him that he can save his family by doing as he is told, but that isn't true. Adam is left with financial resources at the end of the war but he is unable to manage. He is unpredictable and often mean. He swivels between the brink of snaity and out and out madness with dizzying speed, and almost without purpose. This film is not about telling a coherent story so much as it is about depicting the sequellae of atrocities. Which it does without violence--which is remrakable, chilling, and effective. Holocaust movies continue to tell different sides of a hoffifying story and this is an unusual entry into that genre.
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