Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Jojo Rabbit is a film that aims to combine very serious topics with comedy and an overall light-hearted feel – and, in my opinion, succeeds. The film follows Jojo, a 10-year-old boy in Nazi Germany during the last leg of WWII with Hitler as an imaginary friend. At first the film focuses on his relationship with his kind but strangely busy mother, and his struggles to be a good nazi in the Hitler youth camp, where he can’t kill a rabbit when told to, earning the nickname Jojo Rabbit.

Introducing humour to a plotline so heavily focused around Nazism is a very difficult task, but I feel Taika Waititi executed it perfectly by treating in an absurdist way. The portrayal of the belief is satirical, exaggerated and often the butt of jokes used to undermine the hateful ideology, working to keep the tone light while handling serious topics but not gloss over them completely.

The central conflict of the film comes from Jojo’s discovery of a Jew, Elsa, hiding in his home, and Jojo’s moral struggle as their relationship grows, disproving the nazi beliefs that have been fed to him all his life. I think this central conflict works well, as it centres mostly around Jojo and Elsa without overlooking the prominence of Nazism.

There are plenty of moments in the film that take on a more serious tone and are executed well, avoiding clashing with the more humorous moments. The film also makes good use of music, in both its original soundtrack and external one, the external one being used to convey more light-hearted or satirical tones, like in the opening to the film where archival footage of Hitler at Nazi rallies is played with The Beatles’ “Komm, gib mir deine Hand” playing in the background, giving a new, less serious meaning to the footage. The original soundtrack is used more to achieve the serious tone as “the music does not need a comical tone, as the film itself is already comical” according to Waititi, giving leeway for the soundtrack to be used to accentuate important scenes.

Overall, I think the film set out with an idea that, on paper, seems ridiculous – a comedy film about Nazi Germany – but was able to balance that idea with the seriousness the subject demanded well. I would recommend this film to people, as it is an easy watch but thoroughly enjoyable and not without something to say.