Apt Pupil
1998
Stars: Brad Renfro, Ian McKellan, Joshua Jackson, Ann Dowd, Bruce Davidson, David Schwimmer.
Director: Bryan Singer.
Plot: Todd Bowden(Brad Renfro) is just another kid in high school who doesn't like going, but works hard and gets good grades. But he has a new obbession, learning about the horrors of the Holocaust that the teachers won't talk about in school. He becomes fascinated by the Holocaust and finds as much memorabilia of it as possible. Then he stumbles onto news that really makes him excited and happy. His next-door neighbor, Kurt Dussander(Ian McKellan) was a Nazi who worked in the prison camps during the Holocaust. Todd plans to blackmail Kurt unless he tells him the horrors and tales he experienced in his time as a Nazi. At first, Kurt denies it, but Todd shows him files and records that would prove to the cops that he's an ex-Nazi. He gives in and starts to tell Todd everything. But that's not good enough for him, he wants to know more. He buys a Nazi uniform and makes Mr.Dussander suit up and do the Nazi marches around his house. At first, Todd is able to keep up his grades so his parents and teachers don't suspect anything is wrong with him. Then his grades start to suffer in all his classes and his guidance counlser Edward French(David Schwimmer)worries about him. Even his closest friend Joey(Joshua Jackson) starts to see how Todd is isolating himself from all of his friends. It takes his parents Monica and Richard(Ann Dowd and Bruce Davidson) to see the changes in their son. Todd's obbession gets too dangerous and now he must face the consequences.
My Thoughts: Though I usually like Stephen King adaptions and I was really impressed by director Singer's Usual Suspects, this I thought of as a slight disappointment. There were elements in the story that didn't seem like they could be close to what would ocurr in reality. For example, one day after school, Todd is shooting hoops in the school gym when a bird flys in the doors leading outside and gets stuck in the bottom part of the floor where the doors lock in. Todd, who has now turned into a monster, takes his basketball, and smashes it down on the helpless bird, of course killing. For a kid who used to be a straight A student, I find it a little hard to believe that he'd turn into such a violent character. If his character had started off bad or had a broken home where he was abused, it'd be more likely to happen, but I thought that that scene didn't fit into the movie. Also another scene that I thought didn't make sense is when a stray cat walks through the window of Kurt's house, and since he's been drinking and he's angry, he trys to through the cat into oven. For a guy who is pretty old and isn't some sick serial killer who's been killing his whole life, I didn't find that such a character would do something like that. Even though he was in the Holocaust as a Nazi, they weren't exterminating the cat race, so I didn't think that made sense. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good movie, but some of the elements didn't fit and some of the scenes were pretty disturbing which might offend some viewers.
Rating:
