clock … watching time, the only true currency

Two weeks ago in Phoenix, we went to see The Counterfeiters. Winning the Oscar for best foreign language film does help bring a movie some attention, and some needed distribution.

My German is non-existent, so when the film started with the subtitles half off the screen, annoyance started to rise. But the projection corrected, and the film took shape. You never forget the Holocaust setting, but you are compelled to follow the people. The story of Nazi counterfeiting (Operation Bernhard) is new to me, and the film makes me wonder just how was true, since it was “based on a true story.” Either way, the moral ambivalence of the lead concentration camp counterfeiter — himself originally a criminal — helps focus the story. In a world soaked in atrocity, Adolf Burger’s survival instinct isn’t pretty, but his choices are understandable.

79 from Metacritic.