Adam Resurrected

In Berlin, the Jewish Adam Stein (Jeff Goldblum) is a successful artist that works with his wife and two daughters in a cabaret. During the World War II, Adam and his family are sent to a concentration camp and the cruel Commandant Klein (Willem Dafoe), who was his fan, assigns Adam to become his "dog" to entertain him. Adam has to live like a dog with another dog, Rex, while tries to convince Klein to save his wife and his little daughter that are sent to the ovens. After the war, Adam is sent to a mental institution in Israel for Survivors of the Holocaust under the care of the psychiatric Dr. Nathan Gross (Derek Jacobi) and becomes a leader among the patients. He also has a mistress, the nurse Gina Grey (Ayelet Zurer), who loves kinky sex. One day, Adam smells a dog in the institute, which is forbidden, and he finds a boy that was raised chained in a basement and behaves like a dog. Adam recalls his period as a dog in the concentration camp and gets close to the dog-like boy and their journey together begins.

"Adam Resurrected" is a weird film about a man and a boy that have been turned into dog. The strange plot is supported by a fantastic performance of Jeff Goldblum that deserved at least a nomination to the Oscar. Most of the characters are bizarre and this movie is somehow fascinating and seems to be written by a mad writer. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Adam – Memórias de Uma Guerra" ("Adam – Memories of a War")

To deal with the inconceivable you need to create a vocabulary that extends beyond the conventional. The powerful performances, the extraordinary literary devices and the sublime directing and editing help enormously. The end result, a satisfying glimpse into the ineffable is achieved by providing a vision, revealing a landscape that defies revelation. An unique and necessary achievement. An artistic collaborative triumph of the spirit. The difficulties in the conventional narrative are actually an opportunity to explore facets of the spectrum human behavior, from the animal/dog, human and the divine within. Most helpful was the extras on the DVD that provided additional background. BRAVO! And now part II please.

A masterpiece doomed to go unrecognized. Not too many people would like it or even sit through it, but in fact it's one of the best holocaust-related films ever made. Hateful reviews have commented on the fact that the film is disturbing and weird - or about the absurdity of a man surviving the holocaust by acting like a dog for the entertainment of a Nazi officer; is it any more absurd than the idea of people stamped with numbers or shoved into ovens? In the face of a horrifically absurd reality, insanity is often a valid option. Most WWII films center on the partisans, the heroes, the ones who kept their dignity and humanity in the face of genocide. But not everyone did. A major goal of Hitler's action was not just to destroy the Jews, but to dehumanize them first. And in many cases it worked. That's what this film is about - the loss of humanity, the feelings of guilt shared by the ones who survived at the expense of their own most basic human dignities, and it's small wonder that it's difficult for most to swallow.

Paul Schrader made a fantastic job adapting Yoram Kanyuk's novel; reviews blaming him of 'emotional detachment' miss the point that this detachment is very intentional. The cold and distant feeling experienced while watching it is very different from the pathos of Schindler's List or Life Is Beautiful, and, rather than draw the viewer into the actual events, brings them face to face with their very madness and incomprehensibility. Jeff Goldblum portrays that feeling perfectly in what may be the most powerful performance of his career - reminding me, at times, of Roy Scheider in All That Jazz. Master-character actors Willem Dafoe and Derek Jacobi compliment him perfectly without stealing the show, and some of Israel's biggest stars join in to complete the ensemble cast. Bottome line - a terrific film, and instantly a favorite of mine, but I hesitate to recommend it to anyone for fear of being blamed for it later. Watch it at your own risk, with an open mind, and with an empty stomach.

Very touching movie.. Excellent acting.. I could not sleep properly after watching this movie especially the scene where Adam is playing violin and watching his wife and daughter being led away to gas chamber and howling in the night due to immense agony.. also, the scene in the cemetery where he cries and eats the flower and mud of the grave of his daughter.... Surprised why this movie is not considered for Oscar awards...

Jeff Goldlum does the best "Jeff Goldblum" in the business. If you hire him to do a "Jeff Goldblum" performance, it's like money in the bank. But _Adam Resurrected_ is not that. Goldblum's Adam is a nuanced, unpredictable and intelligent piece of work, the best of his career thus far. Indeed, the film as a whole represents a welcome return to adult themes and emotions. Sorrow, loss, power, human dignity, and human degradation are but some of the themes at work in Schrader's movie. Happily, we are not handed a tidy resolution (with the requisite "redemption" at the end), but a deep sense that life is a complicated, conflicted and layered experience. See this film when and if you get tired of CGI effects, Ben Stiller fart jokes and "the genius of Seth Rogen."