Memorable, crazy movie

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

If the movie were fiction, better central characters couldn't have been imagined. Danny, the Auschwitz survivor, has wrestled down his traumas by taking ownership of the experience. He takes pleasure in demonstrating his toughness by overlaying his recollections with humor. His daughter, on the other hand-- for whom the experience is only second-hand-- gives more evidence of suffering than he does and would rather leave the subject alone. The third side of the triangle is Danny's son, who has embraced Orthodox Judaism and acts as a quiet stabilizing force. In the course of a trip to Auschwitz, where Danny wants to assert ownership by spending a night in the barracks, Danny meets people who aren't won over by his humor or awed by his survival, and his resentment comes to the fore. His son and daughter do their best to manage the situation.

If anyone doubts that there is no "model" Holocaust survivor, they need to see this video. At times, the film itself overgeneralizes, as in the wondering at the end if anyone survived. (They did.) But the main thing is that this is a film about a real family, real people, warts and all, history and all. Some will say it's about a particular person or family's mishegoss. Some will say it's about outrage, pure and simple. Some will say it's about the Holocaust. Some will go further and find a way in which it is about all of this and more. (It is.)I will be showing it in my class during the same evening as The Lady in Number 6. The deliberately provocative contrast will be useful, not to "choose sides," but to realize there aren't any.