Waiting for Anya

This movie is missing something. A very retold story. I was excited to watch it at first, as Noah Schnapp is in it. Yet I just wasn't satisfied. It was boring and rather unsuspenseful. My family wasn't entertained and only I finished the movie. There could've been more to happen. It was so plain, reminded me of like a plain grain muffin. As someone who is a HUGEEE history buff, I've seen a lot of films very similar. This movie does not have much to it.

Big turnoff when there is little in the way of authenticity. The signs are all in French, as are the books etc but everyone speaks English. Really requires a huge stretch of the imagination not to be disoriented. Stopped watching after a few minutes as that lack of authenticity really became too annoying! Either use the correct language or set the movie elsewhere and use the original story as the inspiration!

Imagine a story not too dissimilar to Jojo Rabbit, except its for kids, its clearly a drama, and it has the quality of writing, acting, direction and the overall production value of your typical CBBC TV show.

It's summer 1942. Deportations begin in France's north but in the south, life has remained mostly the same. Jo Lalande is a young shepherd working for his grandpa Henri (Jean Reno) in a remote mountain village. He encounters a mysterious man after a bear attack. He follows the man to his hideout. His name is Benjamin. He is waiting for his daughter Anya while hiding at his widow mother Horcada (Anjelica Huston). Father and daughter got separated when Nazis rounded up Jews in Paris. Meanwhile, Jewish children are gathering at the home and Benjamin smuggles them onward into Spain. It's a standard escaping from Nazis film. It doesn't really have the bite of those others. The Germans need a bit more ruthlessness. It suggests it but it doesn't do it until the end. It could have intensify in a couple of different spots. Two times, there are epic opportunities to have an escape in a storm. The first time, they retreated. The second time, they show it as a flashback. The bear should have served as bookends to the story but both times, the bear is only a background player. Neither times is satisfactory. There is good sincerity but this lacks the intensity needed.

I love watching true storys and this one showed what else they done to save the lives of the Jewish children so they could have a better life and not end up like the parents getting sent to the camps not only is this true but story's like these rarely get made. Because they seem to be forgotten brilliant acting by all the cast and this film I would say is dedicated to these people who risked there own lives knowing if they got caught they would know what would happen and even now after all these years after WWII nobody will ever forget what the Germans done in the war.