'Counterfeiters' examines moral ambiguity in WWII

Salomon Sorowitsch, or Sally as he is known to his friends, has a unique talent: The Jewish Berliner may be the world's best counterfeiter, as he can produce perfect bills effortlessly. His ability propels him in mid-1930s Germany, where he lives like a king, mingling with the top brass of the political world while surrounded by beautiful women. In 1936, though, the Nazi counterfeit division catches and takes down Salomon. After being sent to a concentration camp, Sally works his way back into the Nazis' good graces using his artistic skills. Impressed by his know-how, the Nazis make him the leader of Operation Bernhard, a massive foreign currency counterfeiting operation. Though Sally thrives in this relatively relaxed environment, his conscience is touched when fellow prisoner Adolf Burger seeks to sabotage the operation. Faced with Burger's insubordination, Sally must decide whether to delay the operation and risk the lives of his fellow prisoners or continue as planned and aid the very Nazis who robbed him of his freedom.

Without a doubt, the highlight of this movie is Karl Markovics' performance as Sally. Markovics exploits his roughly sculpted features to craft a performance that infuses a resolute strength with an intense sense of regret. His character fights on so that he never "gives the Nazis the pleasure of being ashamed to be alive." A driving anger and meticulous determination fuels the actor's every movement. But even when his character wines and dines at parties, Markovics subtly lends Sally an air of disgust and weariness toward his own profit. Throughout the film, Markovics proves magnetic in a tough role where his character's continued material success leads to ever-deepening moral failure.

Strangely, the filmmakers seem almost apologetic for the existence of a character as morally ambiguous as Sally. As if to compensate for Sally's complexity, they populate the world of the film with other characters that are either unquestionably evil or unquestionably good. For each Nazi who feels pangs of guilt, there are countless others who act like dominating villains, more than happy to humiliate their prisoners with manic glee. On the other end of the spectrum lies the morally good counterfeiter Adolf Burger who hopes to destroy the Nazi war machine. The idealist Burger is based on a real man of the same name who wrote the memoirs on which the film is based. His character expounds continuously on the power of the individual to fight tyranny and injustice. Rather than coming across as moving or even engaging, Burger's well-intentioned speeches are maudlin and unnecessary. The easy characterizations on both sides only serve to cheapen the power of Sally's story, which straddles the spheres of right and wrong.

The movie is not helped by filmmaker Stefan Ruzowitzky's needlessly showy direction. To create an in-your-face documentary feel, Ruzowitzky quickly zooms in on any exciting bit of action. While the zoom is a surprising and engaging technique the first time it's used, the director employs it so often that it soon manages to pull the viewer out of the film. Other experiments by the filmmaker prove even less effective, the most glaring being a montage showing the wife of a Nazi officer prattling on about her beautiful family and the nasty propaganda of the concentration camps. Presented like an over-the-top comedy, the scene feels terribly out of place against the backdrop of the all-too-serious reality that the film catalogs. The story behind "The Counterfeiters," so rich and innovative by itself, would have been better served by a director who knew the value of understated camerawork and staging.

For all its flaws, "The Counterfeiters" provides fascinating insight into the mind of a man desperate to live. In a cinematic landscape full of World War II movies featuring heroes of unquestioned integrity, the story of Salomon Sorowitsch proves to be refreshingly real. One cannot help but feel, though, that the movie could have been much more affecting had it been placed in the hands of a director on par with the astonishingly good lead actor. It is by no means the best foreign film of last year, but "The Counterfeiters" is still a memorable movie worth the cost of admission.

Three out of five paws

Pros:

An innovative premise that looks at war through the eyes of a jaded realist bent on survival.