Resistance
The unoriginally titled Resistance — at least the third World War II drama to bear that name — is at heart an old-fashioned “when they were young” biopic, in the mold of Young Winston (Churchill) or the recent Tolkien. The subject here is world-famous mime Marcel Marceau (né Mangel), who was part of the French Jewish Resistance from about 1939 until the end of the war. Jesse Eisenberg, with a slight (and wholly unnecessary) French accent, plays Marcel, surrounded by fictionalized compatriots, including his brother — younger in real life but older in the film, since “Sigmund” (Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramírez) also incorporates aspects of the cousin who recruited the real Marcel.
The French Resistance story is compelling and, in the second half, quite suspenseful. Later events are centered in Lyon, which allows the filmmakers to make the movie’s villain the actual “butcher of Lyon,” Gestapo officer and torture practitioner Klaus Barbie. It also makes some scenes quite brutal. (To be genuinely horrified, read online about how Americans and West Germans shielded this war criminal from justice for decades.)
Resistance is reminiscent of the recent Anthropoid (2016), spotlighting World War II heroism that took place far from the front lines — although this film isn’t nearly so bleak. (Spoiler: Marcel Marceau survived the war, had a remarkable career, and died at age 84 in 2007.) Rather than focus on the entire French Resistance, as the title misleadingly suggests, this movie hones in on one cell of Jewish fighters, whose most remarkable success was in spiriting Jewish children out of Nazi-held territories.
It’s true that Marcel used mime to distract and quiet the children, and that he was briefly attached to General Patton’s Third Army after the war. (Ed Harris has a cameo as the general.) It’s also true that Marcel was a much better mime than Eisenberg, who’s good with the children in one extended mime interaction early on but whose stage performances here are muddled and imprecise. Eisenberg, who’s 36, is also far too old to play Marcel, who was 20 years younger at the start of the war and whose youth no doubt was a significant factor in his risk-taking. In the movie, Marcel instead gets motivation from compatriot Emma (an impressive Clémence Poésy), a girl he’s been long fixated on who draws him into the Resistance.
In the way of fictionalized historical films, the hero has to meet up with the villain face to face, so Marcel has a long interaction on a train with Barbie (skilled German actor Matthias Schweighöfer), and it’s one of the best scenes for both of them. Indeed, once Marcel gets to Lyon, the movie is transformed from a sort of whimsical biographic fantasy (Dad doesn’t understand why his son wants to be a clown, etc.) into a credible suspense story, with nail-gnawing tension for most of the final 45 minutes.
Writer-director Jonathan Jakubowicz’s previous feature was another biopic, the uneven Hands of Stone, about boxer Robert Duran (played by Ramírez). But while it has a slow start, Resistance is a more focused effort, distilling its story in a way that honors its subject but also respects the audience’s need for a narrative more cinematic than historical. Jakubowicz was well-schooled in action sequences by directing 16 episodes of the Chilean TV action drama Fugitives (now on HBO Latin America), and Resistance is at its most compelling when the characters are under threat. It may not do much for Marceau’s reputation as a mime, but it’s nice to see the good guys win a few against the odds.
Grade: B. Rated R. Available March 27 for streaming (rental or purchase) on Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, and other platforms.
(Photo: Courtesy of Pantaleon Films/IFC FIlms)
