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All Movie Info
Directed By
Bryan Singer
Written By:
Brandon Boyce
Cast:
Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro, Jan Triska, Bruce Davison, Joe Morton, Elias Koteas, David Schwimmer, Michael Byrne, Heather McComb, Ann Dowd, Joshua Jackson, Michael Artura
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Apt Pupil (1998)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
July 19th, 2007
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'Apt Pupil' is an adaptation of a Stephen King novella that appeared in "Different Seasons", which also contained the stories that inspired The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me. Todd Bowden (Renfro), is a high school senior, very likely to be the valedictorian of his graduating class, but he harbors a dark side: an intense, pathological fascination with death and suffering. After studying the Holocaust for a week, Todd does some additional research in the local library (which contains as much information, documents, and photographs than most archive buildings, it would seem), and comes to the conclusion that an old man living down the street, named Arthur Denker (McKellen), is actually Nazi fugitive Kurt Dussander, who worked in the death camps. Todd wants to hear all about Dussander's war experiences, all the grisly details they could not discuss in class. So, he blackmails him, threatening to reveal his identity unless he cooperates. How Todd is able to find Dussander while people like Simon Wiesenthal probably spent decades searching for him is never explained.
Dussander gives Todd what he wants, and then Todd starts to have nightmares, and his behavior changes. Meanwhile, Dussander, feeling no remorse, begins to get back in touch with his past, trying to throw a neighbor's cat into his oven (an offensive reference to the crematoria used to incinerate the bodies of dead Jews), and even killing a homeless bum (Elias Koteas) who may or may not know the truth about Dussander. For this, Dussander calls in Todd, who must bury the man and even finish him off, an initiation of sorts, and to make sure that Todd gets his hands dirty, so he cannot maintain his innocence or purity. Dussander claims to have papers stored away that would incriminate Todd, so the boy's blackmailing plans effectively backfire, and he finds himself in academic trouble at school, forced to meet with nosy guidance counselor Mr. French (David Schwimmer), and Dussander even poses as his grandfather for one such meeting. French begins to see through Todd's lies, and this leads to a half-baked confrontation at the end, which turns out quite differently than it does in the end. Dussander suffers a heart attack and goes to the hospital, where he is placed in a bed next to a Holocaust survivor, who happens to recognize him one night and informs the authorities. Dussander wakes up staring at Israelis, the last people on earth a Nazi would want to see. They want to extradite him to Jerusalem, to stand trial like Eichmann. He has other plans.
In lieu of all this, Todd buys an SS uniform for Dussander, who puts it on and marches around his kitchen, sieg heiling with enthusiasm. There is also what I find to be a veiled reference to the euthanasia program, which preceded the Holocaust, when Todd uses his basketball to put a bird with a broken wing out of its misery. I say this because the movie seems to exploit the Holocaust, quite stupidly, as a plot device, and overarching framework that encapsulates the psychologies of both Todd and Dussander. McKellen is wonderful, though over-the-top, he sports a convincing, nearly flawless German accent, and has no trouble making Dussander detestable. Renfro is less impressive, obviously Todd is troubled, but he also has a bland personality, and seems emotionally detached from everything, perhaps as a result of the awful images in his head, put there by Dussander's accounts of his war career.
It is thoroughly unpleasant and not terribly smart, and fails to generate much tension, or suspense, or even outright terror. Bryan Singer is a gifted director, but this lackluster film does not sit well on his resume, but is nicely balanced out by his superhero blockbusters and The Usual Suspects, so we can perhaps overlook this minor blemish.
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