Music Box

Excellent performances by Armin Mueller-Stahl and Jessica Lange (and even Michael Rooker in a thankless role) make "The Music Box" well-worth seeing (and seeing again). I also appreciated Costa-Gavras's establishing shots such as the dizzying image in a large building as Lazlo and his daughter go up an elevator to meet with federal prosecutors, pigeons on the window sill of the court room, etc. I liked the way Chicago and Budapest are used in the movie as two poles of the story. It is true that a few things do not make sense. Ann Talbot (Lange) accuses the US prosecutor (Frederick Forest) of letting the Hungarian government dictate his case, and the US does seem to rely entirely on Hungarian evidence, never bothering to look for any evidence west of Budapest. There is something to be said, however, for the suspension of disbelief. If the US prosecutors were not so incompetent, then it would not be entirely up to Talbot, the moral center of the movie, to uncover the truth and carry the responsibility for it entirely by herself. It is, by the way, the Hungarians and not the Russians whom Lazlo accuses of trying to frame him.

The film won the Golden Bear for the Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival.

The film rests on the original screenplay by Joe Eszterhas, the commendable performances of Jessica Lange (Oscar nominated performance), the enigmatic Armin-Mueller Stahl, and the wonderful Hungarian actress Mari Torocsik (best known for her lead role in Karoly Makk's 1971 film "Love") playing a brief but important role in this film, and of course the typical Costa-Gavras direction that relies on editing and music to a subtle perfection.

The importance of the script of this film will not be obvious to many because the importance came to the fore long after the film won the Golden Bear. Mr Eszterhas' own real life father was a Hungarian who migrated to the US and was found to be a Nazi collaborator just as the film's story presents its lead character. The scriptwriter arguably knew or suspected this when he wrote the script. Many of the original scripts of Eszterhas,("Basic Instinct", "Sliver," "Betrayed," "Jade," etc.) deal with a hidden personality in people that we trust/love. He has been conferred with several Razzie awards but his work needs to be appreciated as important works of a tormented mind that provided entertainment for us without the viewers realizing this.

I was astounded in reading the comments on these films to see people saying that Armin Muehler-Stall's character is flat and empty.Also, those that say his angry outbursts are not threatening.

My father is a Hungarian immigrant who I have wondered where he has a similar "true story". I can say from personal experience that Armin's performances are consistent with my father's outbursts and for me personally were terrifying when seeing the movie.

In terms of the generalization that the performance was "flat", there is a cold, clinical, almost sociapathic sense to some elderly Hungarians. Additionally, I found Jessica Lange's performance COMPLETELY believeable as someone raised under such strong expectations and often silent or restrained about true expressions of emotion or fear.

That's my two cents. DO NOT underestimate the ACCURACY of this film.

Jessica Lange is very good as Ann Talbot, a lawyer who takes up the task of defending her father (Armin Mueller-Stahl) against charges of Nazi war crimes. The charges are ridiculous to her at first, but she slowly begins to realize they might be true. Lukas Haas, giving an exceptionally bright-eyed and intelligent performance, plays Ann's 12-year-old son, who believes unquestioningly that his beloved grandfather is innocent.

Roger Ebert wrote that the father, while very well-played by Mueller-Stahl, does not devote enough time to helping us to understand his character, but I don't know that any film could do that for such a person. Mueller-Stahl and the script at least offer suggestions and let our imaginations do the rest.

I found this film, scripted by Joe Eszterhas and directed by Costa-Gavras, to be a quietly effective courtroom thriller (even though the idea of a lawyer defending her own father in this situation requires a high suspension of disbelief) and found the central drama of a woman discovering her father is, or at least was, a monster to be moving.

The movie focuses on two universal questions-do we actually know people we believe we do,including close ones,and does productive and outwardly respected life erase or diminish a past of hineous and sadistic crimes. I find the acting in the movie,including in the supporting roles,powerful.The courtroom scenes,with victims confronting a Hungarian ex SS man,deeply moving,and far from any cliche. worth noting is the senior lawyer,uttering his views about the holocaust to his grandson.One wonders what it will take to disrupt his aloof equanimity. I think that the movie has unique value,in light of the proliferation of the holocaust deniers,practitioners of historiographic hooliganism,by doing its part in telling us what happened.