'Pajamas' limited but emotive

“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” like other films before it, revisits the horrors of Nazi Germany during World War II. Based on a book by Irish novelist John Boyne, which he drafted in 2 1/2 days, the film succeeds in its appeal to emotion and innocence.

Set in late-1930s Germany, “Pajamas” is seen from the perspective of 8-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield, in a gifted performance), whose father (David Thewlis) is a high-ranking officer in the German army. Upon his promotion, the family relocates from luscious Berlin to the countryside, and Bruno is forced to leave his comfortable life behind.

As Bruno adjusts to his new life, he notices that the house “farmer” wears striped pajamas. These pajamas become the recurring thematic heart of the film. To Bruno’s father and sister, the pajamas denote dirty Jews. To his mother (Vera Farmiga), they symbolize sympathy.

To Bruno, the pajamas first signify “farmers,” then friendship when he makes a Jewish friend, and later identity when he puts the pajamas on himself. Ultimately, the pajamas embody cultural difference as well as German hatred toward Jews.

Upon discovering that the family is living adjacent to an unnamed concentration camp (Auschwitz in the book the film is based on), Bruno’s mother has a mental breakdown and implores her husband to let her take the children away.

“Pajamas” is bound to become one of the many classic movies about WWII concentration camps, in the arena of “Schindler’s List” and “The Pianist.”

But while the film is touching, it is still difficult to put it in the ranks with films such as “Life is Beautiful,” which is similar in its innocent perspective on the horrors the Holocaust.

But like the aforementioned movies, a tragedy must occur for viewers to truly understand the significance of genocide.

The one peculiar element of director Mark Herman’s film is that his actors speak in British accents in their portrayal of Germans. This oddity aside, the film gives a delicate touch to a serious historical error in human judgment, seen through the eyes of young boy who wants to make sense of it all.