Good

Shot entirely on location in Budapest, Good stars Viggo Mortensen as John Halder, a German literature professor hired by the Nazi Party to pen a scholarly document supporting Hitler's ideas about weeding out society's aged and infirm. Halder is told by a high-ranking official (Mark Strong) that a pro-euthanasia novel Halder wrote years before has impressed the Führer. The weak-willed academic—who's abandoned his family to live with an attractive student (Jodie Whittaker)—agrees to the proposal but grumbles about his assignment to his Jewish friend, psychoanalyst Maurice Israel Glückstein (Jason Isaacs). As he gets drawn deeper into the Third Reich's vortex, Halder eventually realizes the extent of Hitler's depredations—although too late to alter his own destiny. Mortensen and Isaacs turn in fine performances, but director Vicente Amorim's Good (adapted from a play by C.P. Taylor) fails to deliver any suspense or urgency, coming across as too cerebral and dispassionate—like the professor himself—to rouse much feeling in viewers who've seen this theme explored in better films. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD extras include cast and crew interviews (60 min.), behind-the-scenes footage (30 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an uneven film.] (E. Hulse)