I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The first must-see film of the year.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Jakob Beer (Stephen Dillane) and Alex (Rosamund Pike) seem to be a happy Toronto couple but Alex finds his journal where he fears losing his identity to Alex. He is haunted by his past and they split up. His Polish family was destroyed by the Nazis and his sister Bella (Nina Dobrev) was taken by them. Jakob (Robbie Kay) was rescued by Greek archaeologist Athos Roussos (Rade Šerbedžija). In Greece, they fear the occupying Nazis and escape to Canada. In Toronto, they befriend their Jewish neighbors who escaped from Warsaw.This is a gentle telling of a horrifying tale. The adult Jakob is fine but it is the chemistry between Rade and the younger Jakob that is so touching. Rade is so powerful and the kid is so fragile. The movie does miss Rade when he's gone. However, it doesn't mean Jakob's later relationship isn't just as compelling. There is a dreamy, gentle tone throughout.

The film tells the story of a Polish man, Jakob, who was orphaned during the 2nd World War and saved by a Greek archaeologist. His saviour smuggles him out of Poland to Greece and relative safety. After the war they move to Canada and Jakob reflects on his life, writing about his traumatic childhood, the memories of which still haunt him. His troubled emotions lead to the break up of his marriage and he moves on with the intent of coming to terms with his past.Towards the end of the film the story does perhaps get a little too profound and the ultimate resolution is a bit too neat and tidy to be believable. However, it's a great story.

The timing for my watching this movie was unfortunate; I have recently seen three movies on related subject of the Holocaust, so I was not disposed in being entirely objective. That being said, this movie did offer an original take; it included a moving relation between a man saving a young Jewish boy from the well known fate of the rest of his family. The boy, Young Jakob, is played by Robbie Kay, who performs well, certainly thanks to the direction of Jeremy Podeswa (Boardwalk Empire) who also wrote the script from Anne Michael's novel; Kay portrays what it was to live in the haunting memory of the family he could not extinguish from his mind and in particular the memory of his 15 year old sister Bella, played by the beautiful and charming Nina Dobrev.The movie does not follow a formal timeline not even in its flashbacks and in the scenes when both young Jakob and older Jakob has visions of his sister; she had an indelible mark on Jakob. The story also goes back and forth intermittently showing how devoted, kind and understanding the boy's savior, Athos, was and how he helped shape his future. The actors do a splendid job, but I found it was a bit too melodramatic at times. Perhaps the introverted character of older Jakob, played by Stephen Dillane, was what made the melodrama a bit more than I cared to see. It does not take away from his performance; I just was not in the best mood for this. He became a writer, encouraged by Athos, and predictably, his writings dealt with subject relating to the loss and effects of the loss of his family in WWII.Rade Serbedzija, who plays Athos Roussos, Jakob's savior, performs his part very well, but it seems he always plays that very same character in so many of his movies; at least here I liked how he was, for all intent and purpose, a damn good father figure for Jakob. I won't forget the mature Jakob's love interests, Alex, played by the talented and delicious Rosamund Pike, who's zest for life was too much for the melancholic Jakob; thankfully he later is introduced to the gorgeous Michaela, played by Ayelet Zurer, a kindred spirit who unleashes in Jakob the desire for love and life in ways the viewer was likely to believe he was incapable of finding. The ending was unexpectedly a happy one, well not the sad one we could have expected before Michaela's introduction; it was the redeeming factor, which makes me okay with recommending it, providing the storyline is one that does not turn you off. p.s. The scenery of the Greek Islands where a good part of the story takes place will make you wish you lived there.

Saw this on Netflix streaming. The critic Ebert has a good review of it.The story begins in 1942, as Nazis are rounding up Jews in Poland, and the little boy Jacob Beer is told to hide in a small place behind a seam in the wallpaper. He sees what happens, some of his family are killed, others including his 15-yr-old sister are taken away. Instead of staying put as he was told, he runs into the forest, until he can go no more and covers himself in leaves in a depression in the ground.A Greek geologist Rade Serbedzija as Athos is in a team dig and finds Jacob, takes him to safety, brings him to Greece, raises him as if he were his own son. Eventually they move to Canada where Jacob grows up, eventually turning to writing and teaching.This is a story of the human condition, in this case how the events of that day in 1942 shaped the life of Jacob. He could not forget, he could not help wondering what would have happened if he had stayed in the house as he was told. Was his sister Bella alive? If so would he ever find her? All this shaped how he saw the world, and how he reacted to others and potential relationships.The source book was written by a poet, so it is fitting that much of Jacob's writing depicted in the movie has a highly poetic sound. It is a very good movie, it moves rather deliberately but is always interesting.Stephen Dillane is the adult Jakob, I knew I had seen him before but could not place him, until IMDb reminded me he was Harry Vardon in "The Greatest Game", the story of how amateur Francis Ouimet won the US Amateur Golf championship in 1913. He was perfect as Vardon, and is perfect here as Jacob.