This movie illustrates what Hannah Arendt meant by "the banality of evil." There are no mu-hwa-hawa laughs here (well, actually, there are a couple). But mainly these guys act like mid-level managers at a coporate training get-away.
What's weird is that I kept looking for a hero here. I know these guys are Nazis; but it's still a movie, and I was still looking for a "good guy." The guy who comes closest is Dr. Kitzinger, who argues against anhiliating the Jews. Purge them, separate them, deprive them of liberty-- yes! But kill them-- No. He's the film's "conscience." But, of course, even his "conscience" gives way once Heydrich (Kenneth Brannagh) threatens him a bit.
And then there's Colin Firth as the lawyer who crafted the Nuremburg race laws. He seems, at first, to be a Jewish sympathizer... but then we learn he despises Jews more than half of the people at the table. He just wants to purge them... "legally." Whatever that could mean in this context.
And then there's an SS captain who's uncomfortable with killing Jews, and doesn't want to do it.
So, there are the film's "heroes." Three guys who are uncomfortable, for one reason or another, at the thought of exterminating a race. But they all agree to do it anyway.
Kenneth Brannagh is great as Heydrich. No muu-hwa-haws from him. Everything is said with a polite smile.
A really, really terrific and disturbing film. Based, apparently, almost entirely on the exact word-for-word minutes of the meeting, so there's little Hollywoodization. (Although there are a few private discussions which, presumably, had to be written.)
I thought Branagh was very, very good. I thought all the actors were great.
The one exception is Stanley Tucci. It's not that he wasn't good; it's just that he didn't say three words in the entire movie. I find it difficult to rate a performance as "great" if an actor is barely in the movie, and just takes notes or looks around when he is in the movie.
Some will call this "perfectly understated." I call it "the kind of role I could easily play." You want me to sit there and listen to people? In a Nazi SS uniform? I don't call this "acting"; I call it "Saturday night, out with the boys."
So, was he bad? No. But he had so little to do it's hard to say he was good or bad.
