Anne Frank: The Whole Story

I know someone said that this wasn't an accurate account of Anne Frank's life but as an Asian and having only heard of Anne Frank through summaries in WWII stories, this movie really helped me to get to know this girl and her account of her life as a Jewish girl during WWII. Some facts and accounts may have been manipulated to make the story more interesting but the essence of the story was there. Hannah Taylor Gordon played Anne Frank almost too good; she even looked like the real girl and it was really scary. She really captured the spirit of the sweet wide eyed hopeful girl who never truly comprehended with the horrors of the war. It was heart wrenching to watch an innocent girl being thrown into a concentration camp but I doubt it was to get our sympathies; it was just an inkling of how the children were treated during the Holocaust. The young ones were sent directly to the gas chamber (they were useless; couldn't work) and others like Anne Frank, were made to work and suffer eventhough she was still struggling through her puberty. It wasn't a horror movie but it was scary, if you know what I mean; you can't help but cry for another innocent life lost and then be reminded in the end that Anne Frank was only one of the one and a half million children who died in the Holocaust.

What can I say about Anne Frank:The Whole Story that hasn't already been said?Not much I guess.I saw it a week ago when it premiered in Finland and was totally devastated by it.It's quite possibly the saddest movie I've ever seen.There were tears in my eyes throughout the movie and the last half an hour was almost unbearable to watch.

Hannah Taylor Gordon is a revelation.She looks just like Anne Frank but,more importantly,manages to capture her wide-eyed optimism and indomitable spirit perfectly.It's truly heart breaking to see her at the end,her spirit finally broken and all her hope gone.Gordon is so believable in her role,it's almost scary.Ben Kingsley is also wonderful as Anne's father.You really believe they are a father and a daughter.The other actors are good too,but Gordon and Kingsley really stand out.

As I said,there's nothing I can say about this movie that hasn't already been said.It's an experience that will stay with me for a long time and possibly the best holocaust movie I've ever seen. 10/10

Let's face this fact that Anne Frank's diary is almost as well read as the Bible, Torah, and Koran. We all know about Anne Frank, the Dutch Jewish girl, who hid in the attic with her family during World War II from the Nazis. She wrote in her diary about life in the attic and how they lived under constant fear and terror. The cast has Sir Ben Kingsley as Anne's father, Otto Frank, and lone survivor. Brenda Blethyn OBE is also in the cast. It's chilling when they get to the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen, the separation, hair-shaving, and ritual act of dehumanizing everybody there. There was no talk among them as they sat with their hair being cut off for another purpose. We know who made it and didn't. After visiting Auschwitz in 2000, I didn't feel what I supposed to feel like ghosts and hauntings which I feared the most because it drains you emotionally. Even 60 years after the Holocaust, I fear that people are forgetting about it and not learning from it. We haven't learned because there are other Anne Franks out there. It is still a haunting and chilling testament of survival and the human spirit.

Anne Frank. A girl like anyone else. Anne Frank. A girl who wanted to travel, to do great things, to be a "modern woman". Just an ordinary girl, who lived and died under extraordinary circumstances. Forced into hiding after the Germans gained control of the Netherlands, she was confined in an annex for two years, and then discovered and with her family was taken to a concentration camp. She later perished there. The only survivor of the annex group was Anne's father, Otto Frank. All that is left of her story is the diary she left behind. Her diary, her legacy to the world, defined the voice of a generation. Her irrepressible spirit and pure heart shine through within its pages. Her words, some of the most precious words in history, have been preserved for posterity in the novel, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. This movie, Anne Frank: the Whole Story, tells this tale with such power it leaves the viewer in tears. From her bright, hopeful beginning to her heart-wrenching end, this movie grows a step further than the diary and really does show the "whole story". Inspiring, truthful, tragic, heartbreaking, yet triumph. 10/10

This movie is so much more realistic than every other Anne Frank film. For starters it does not show Anne as a saint-like person and although she was a great, great person, she was just like every other girl (excuse me) young lady, she had her faults, and beyond Anne there were the others who had their problems.

Anne was magnificently played by Hannah Taylor Gordon. She is one of the best Annex that I have seen yet. She was perfect in her characterization and really made you love her. You looked at her on screen and you were caught in love with instantly, she was like magic on screen. She as well as Ben Kingsley and Brenda Blethyn both deserve Emmy nominations for their work.

Otto and Auguste van Pels were spot on. Ben playing Otto Frank not as a regal saintly savior of the Annex members (although in many respects he really was) but as a guiding light, the leader, and the most intelligent. Brenda Blethyn turns in another great performance as the spoiled and unadaptable Mrs. van Pels. Great in all her scenes you learn to give sympathy to this woman in a way you don't give anyone else, especially when you see her in the end.

The rest on the Annex members were also nice. Edith Frank was shown as she might really have been in real life. A woman going through a mid-life crises of sorts. Looking back and perhaps not being quite satisfied with her marriage and life. Peter van Pels was as I've never seen him before. The actor was excellent and gave life to Peter which is something I've always wanted to see from the Peter van Pels actors. Mr. van Pels and Mr. Pfeffer are wonderful too. And all of the Secret annex occupants really made a great relationship with the workers.

Lili Taylor pulled of a nice performance as Miep, very selfless and hard working. The rest were great too, including the warehouse worker. However, my main complaint was that Bep Voskuijl was shown to be an utter ditz. Maybe she was written this way because Miep said that that was the way she was, however, I did find it somewhat sad to see her portrayed that way.

The crew also pulled of excellent work. The costuming was nice. Barbara Lane was able to show with good quality how that Franks, van Pels, and Mr. Pfeffer were not poor. Never were they poor, they were very well off. I feel many costumers in the past have assumed that because they were all Jews being persecuted and in hiding that they were poor. Although the quality of clothing would have gone down with time (as shown) she still was able to put forth wonderful work. As did the art department going into nice detail to recreate the annex and the Frank house. Brilliantly filmed all around, power to the writer and producers for going outside the annex.