“WINTER IN WARTIME.”
*** STAR RATING | Drama.
R. 1 hour 43 minutes. Dutch, German and English with subtitles. At the Esquire.
One of the first adventure books that captured my imagination was “Snow Treasure,” a true story about Norwegian children who outwit Nazi occupiers to smuggle a town’s gold bouillon to safety. “Winter in Wartime” belongs in the same class. The movie version of the Jan Terlouw novel is handsome, exciting and morally rich.
In the desperate final phase of World War II, a British plane crashes in the woods outside a village in occupied Holland. Soon, 13- year-old Michiel (remarkable Martijn Lakemeier) intercepts a map that was meant for the resistance and discovers an injured pilot, Jack (Jamie Campbell Bower), clutching a gun in an underground hideout.
Quickly switching to English, Michiel offers to help the pilot, who is not much older than himself. Michiel’s father (Raymond Thiry) is the mayor of the town, who preaches appeasement to keep the family safe; his uncle Ben (Yorick van Wageningen) is a bold resistance fighter — and Michiel’s hero.
Biking back and forth through wintry woods that are crawling with German soldiers, the boy brings his new friend food and medical care, courtesy of a nurse who happens to be Michiel’s amorous older sister (Melody Klaver).
The trio devise a daring plan to ferry Jack to safety, but as the film becomes more conventionally exciting, it also becomes unconventionally complex.
