Christopher and His Kind

It's hard to approach this BBC adaptation of author Christopher Isherwood's memoir of his experiences in pre-Nazi Berlin without expecting Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey to suddenly turn up. At first, things promise to be very different, as we witness young Isherwood's (Matt Smith) arrival in the German capital, where British writers W.H. Auden (Pip Carter) and Gerald Hamilton (Toby Jones) introduce him to the local gay community. But director Geoffrey Sax devotes much of the running time to revisiting situations covered in Cabaret and its nonmusical forerunner, I Am a Camera, although he also focuses on Isherwood's relationship with a handsome young street sweeper named Heinz (Douglas Booth). That entanglement ends badly—Isherwood is unable to secure refugee status for his lover in England—and a flash-forward to post–World War II Berlin provides a somewhat bitter coda. Smith, who is best known for his role on Doctor Who, serves up a fine performance as the morally complex Isherwood in this handsome production that successfully evokes Berlin during various periods of social chaos (the film was actually shot in Northern Ireland). However, Christopher and His Kind never quite finds its groove, especially in the emotionally unsatisfactory exploration of Isherwood's love life. And poor Imogen Poots, as the Sally Bowles–inspired character Jean Ross, is never able to dispel unfavorable comparisons to Minnelli's Oscar-winning triumph. An optional purchase. (P. Hall)