विदाई, मिस्टर हाफमैन

I am beginning to wonder that the great French actor Daniel Auteuil has hit lower ground with his recent choices for the movies he is starring in. Daniel Auteuil used to be a sure bet that you were gonna see a solid movie, but times have changed, so it seems...

The bad: this movie is dressing up to be a dramatic movie about war refugees, but what it ends up being is a cheap copycat.

Every technical detail (set, photography, sound) is below average. But what's worse is that the acting performances are lacking in spark and punch. There simply is no actor's chemisty.

This looks and feels like a cheaply made television movie. Bummer. Expected a lot more from it...

Flawless work by the cast make this watch an emotion inducing one. It's a people story full of artistic expressions. Great visuals to portray how lives changed. A chronicle on what people saw, felt and had to live through in a time of death. Farewell Mr. Haffmann is for the keen minds to revisit history and admire the strange ways of human mind the fountain of persona.

Set in 1941 the film is mostly set in the jewelry shop of Mr Haffman. As such it could almost be a stage play. It is atmospherically filmed (with plenty of suspense) and the audience becomes closely involved with the characters.

The character development is clever with the audience's sympathy moving away away from the protagonist as the story develops. I really enjoyed the plot twists with several really clever reveals that added excellent depth to the story.

Sara Giraudeau is fabulous as Blanche.

Movies on Holocaust are always very emotional but this one is even more loaded with all kinds of emotions. The characters just jump out of the screen and become a part of your life too. It takes a very good script, an excellent direction and larger-than-life actors to achieve that.

It's a drama set in Paris, France, beginning in May 1941 and extending into late 1942. It follows the story of a Jewish-owned jewelry shop after the Germans have taken over Paris.

Joseph Haffmann (Daniel Auteuil) is a successful middle-aged jeweler of great skill. When he sees signs stating all Jews need to report for a census, he sends his wife and three children to a safer area in Vichy France. François Mercier (Gilles Lellouche) is Haffmann's recently-hired French assistant. Mercier is an unhappy man who could not serve in the army because of a bad leg that requires a brace. He is also despondent because, after several years of marriage, he cannot have children with his wife, Blanche (Sara Giraudeau). The doctors have indicated Blanche is healthy, so François blames himself.

Haffmann concocts a scheme to save his business during the German occupation by "selling" it to Mercier, with the understanding he will repurchase the shop after the war. He promises to help Mercier then set up his own shop. Mercier agrees though Blanche is skeptical. However, Haffmann is foiled in his efforts to follow his family and is forced to hide with the Merciers, who have already moved into Haffmann's home above the shop.

The film then follows the difficult changes in the relationship between Haffmann and the Merciers, especially since a German Commandant named Jünger (Nikolai Kinski) becomes a major customer of the store. Relationships deteriorate until a surprise allows for a righteous ending.

"Adieu Monsieur Haffmann" is perhaps the best film I've seen this year. The acting, direction, and cinematography, are all excellent. The righteous ending seems a little improbable and subtracts my rating from a 10 to a 9. The viewer gets into the souls of the three principal characters. The film is derived from a play, so almost all the action takes place in one building. Highly recommended.