Max

So much controversy has been swirling around the release of Max--a fictional film about a Jewish art dealer (John Cusack) in post-WWI Germany who takes an angry young painter named Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor, Shine) under his wing--that a rather important fact has been lost in the debate: namely, the movie isn't very good. Taylor is so nervously seething with bile, resentment, fear and anger that it's difficult to take him seriously during pivotal scenes in which the young Nazi party organizer is spitting his venomous but empty anti-Semitic propaganda to crowds on the streets of Berlin. Max ostensibly tries to show another side of Hitler as a young, acrimonious war veteran with the technique, but not the talent, to be a painter; but instead of truly exploring the theoretical roots of what may have turned him into the future Fuhrer, the film reduces him to not much more than a trenchant nerd, bitter over not getting laid or selling any paintings. Cusack's presence doesn't exactly help either: suffice it to say that his talent does not lie in period drama. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary with writer-director Menno Meyjes, interviews with six cast and crew members (Meyjes, costars John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski, and Molly Parker, and producer Andras Hamor), and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a disappointing film.] (R. Blackwelder)