The Optimist: The Bravest Act Is Truth (Christian Movie Review)
The Optimist explores themes of guilt and grief through the friendship of a Holocaust survivor and a mourning teenage girl.
About the Film
“I felt guilty for decades. And then I began to tell you my story.” This quote is the heart of the film, which emphasizes the importance of bearing one another’s burdens. The Optimist explores themes of guilt and grief through the friendship of a Holocaust survivor and a mourning teenage girl. It begs the audience to take heart: despite the horrors of the past, there is life still to live.
Herbert Heller is a toyshop owner, father, husband, and Holocaust survivor who is dying of a mysterious illness. When he meets Abbey, a teenage girl who is recovering from an overdose, the pair discovers an unlikely bond. Though rooted in guilt and grief, their friendship blossoms into a powerful exploration of support across generations. Abbey becomes the first person with whom Herbert shares his story and vice versa. In the end, their relationship leads Abbey to mend her relationship with her mother and Herbert to open up to his family.
The film’s title is, I believe, a reference to Herbert’s father. He is optimistic to a fault, ignoring the growing signs of danger and choosing to stay in Prague rather than escaping to a safer place. (Of course, that’s not to say it’s his fault his family ends up in the camps. That blame rests firmly on the shoulders of the Nazis blindly following Hitler’s orders.) On the other hand, the father’s optimism is also what saves his youngest son’s life, giving him just enough hope to escape during a death march. Later in life, Herbert inherits his father’s relentless optimism, which prevents him from sharing his heaviest burden with the people he loves most until it’s nearly too late.
Abbey’s family is the opposite of Herbert’s, broken and pessimistic. Abbey and her best friend make a suicide pact, but Abbey survives. Both Abbey and Herbert struggle with survivor’s guilt, wishing many times that they had passed instead. At the climax of the film, Herbert finds Abbey about to take her own life, and he tells her, “I know it feels like it’s the end of the world, but it’s not. I know that. I saw the end of the world. I had a ring-side seat for it.” Yet Herbert survived the end of the world and managed to thrive.
An interesting prop in the story is Herbert’s “Jude” star from his time in Prague. He kept it through the years, transforming it into a symbol of pride of what he had overcome. But holding onto it makes healing more difficult. At the end of the story, he gives it away, along with the heavy burden he shouldered for all those years.
This film takes place in beautiful Northern California, with a backdrop of rainy redwood forests that contrast the ugliness of the events in the protagonists’ pasts. It’s a poetic juxtaposition that perfectly encapsulates the message of the story. Dumbledore may have said it best when he stated, “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light” (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2004).
Technically, there’s nothing remarkable about the film, but the story takes center stage. The Holocaust flashback scenes are a bit too pristine, detracting somewhat from the gritty reality. But after the first few flashbacks, they no longer feel jarring. One standout scene that effectively showcases Nazi cruelty features Josef Mengele lounging on some steps while a prisoner is hanged behind him. He speaks as if the Holocaust is all a game to him, warning prisoners that if they try to escape, the same fate awaits them.
Overall, The Optimist is a tearjerker that will leave audiences empathizing with the characters in the film as well as with anyone else who experienced the Holocaust or has lost a friend to suicide. It’s not a particularly excellent example of technical filmmaking, but the story is inspiring.
For Consideration
On the Surface—(Profanity, Sexual content, violence, etc.).
Language: S—t, demeaning use of “Jew” repeatedly.
Violence: There are allusions to the death that awaits the people in the concentration camps. A family chooses to jump off a building instead of going to a concentration camp. Their deaths aren’t shown, but a young boy witnesses one of the deaths, and blood spatters across his face. A character commits suicide by taking a handful of pills and washing them down with alcohol. Another attempts suicide but survives. A man is hanged, but only his feet are shown jerking and then dangling in the background.
Sexuality: Men and boys are in line for inspection by Mengele. They are naked, but no genitals are shown, and only the top of the buttocks are visible. One character sleeps around and takes a selfie with each of his “conquests.” They are all fully clothed in the photos.
Other: Topics of suicide and genocide may be heavy for some viewers.
Engage The Film
Old Friends and Old Problems
In Galatians 6:2, Paul writes, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” We cannot bear the burdens of others if we don’t also share our own. It’s a two-way street.
There is a certain feeling of release that comes from confessing a sin, temptation, or struggle to a fellow believer. Keeping a secret hurts the secret keepers as well as everyone around them. Herbert and Abbey learn that speaking about their struggles lightens their load and provides accountability. Both battle survivor’s guilt in silence. Abbey’s mom realizes that something is wrong but doesn’t know what. That secret causes a rift in their relationship. Herbert and Abbey help each other recognize the importance of sharing their grief and struggles with those they love. Surrounded by love and comfort, they are finally able to heal.
