New Netflix Holocaust Series Shines Bright Light During a Dark Time
A bartender must give up the location of a blind girl who is making illegal radio broadcasts, or be shot in 10 seconds. It’s 1944, and the Nazis know they are losing the war in a new Netflix miniseries All The Light We Cannot See. As the Nazi, Lars Eidinger (Reinhold von Rumpel) appears to be impersonating Christoph Waltz’s Oscar winning role in Inglourious Basterds.
In the French Saint-Malo, Marie (Aria Mia Loberti) is a blind girl who risks her life to transmit radio messages. She reads the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Seas, but, as instructed by her uncle Etienne (Hugh Laurie), it serves as codes to help the Allied bombers. Mark Ruffalo plays her father, Daniel. Werner Pfennig (Louis Hofmann) hears the girl’s broadcast, and is assigned to find her.
The cinematography gives the needed foreboding feeling, and Loberti is fantastic as Marie. She is legally blind, and it’s hard to believe this was her first role, and that she’d never even auditioned for anything before.
Von Rumpel is trying to track down a piece of jewelry called the Sea of Flames, and he’s willing to kill for it. Meanwhile, Marie’s father warns her about the danger of the jewelry, and a curse associated with it.
Ruffalo delivers a slightly above average performance, while Hofmann and Loberti’s acting styles are natural and unforced.
In a flashback scene where she says goodbye to Werner as he joins the Nazis, Luna Wedler is excellent as Jutta, his sister, who warns him not to be impressed or convinced by them. Ed Skrein is fantastic as Herr Siedler, and deserved more screen time. Hugh Laurie does a fine job as Etienne, who has a dramatic life saving moment.
A number of scenes lack tension, including one in a bakery and one with someone being tortured, as we have no doubt what his decision will be.
The fourth and final episode is the strongest, in which Reinhold asks Daniel: “Is pain stronger than love?”
Though some of the writing is stilted, a line delivered by an unlikely hero is brilliant. The series lacks action or much character development, but it gets better as it goes on. The plot is simple and there are few surprises. It is beautifully shot but lacks meaningful music, though the flashbacks are well done and are not disruptive. The symbolism is a bit too on the nose.
Though there are some cliches, the series is worth watching for the acting of Loberti and the inspiring story of good vs. evil. Based on the book by Anthony Doerr, it is an intriguing tale of resistance, and the series adaptation could have been brilliant with a few touches to make the plot and the characters richer.
If you’re a fan of World War II related stories and can be satiated with only a few action scenes, you will enjoy the series.
The author is a writer based in New York.
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