The Reel Review
As Nazi German occupiers round up members of his family for execution in 1943 Poland, an 11-year-old Jewish boy escapes, eking out an existence in the forest near his hometown for more than a year before soldiers from the Soviet Union would eventually liberate the area. Jett Klyne stars in this historical war drama based on the true story of Maxwell Smart.
In the lexicon of Holocaust films, this well-intended, low budget biopic from Canadian writer/director Rebecca Snow – inspired by her excellent, award-winning 2019 documentary Cheating Hitler: Surviving the Holocaust about Smart and two other Holocaust survivors – suffers from a languid pace, a lack of action and not much story. Our hero spends a lot of time just hanging out alone, then hanging out with another war orphan he befriends. More details about how he managed to survive would have gone a long way in giving the story heart.
Klyne does a fine job as Max, despite somewhat murky dream sequences that only later become apparent as foreshadowing the discovery of an infant survivor of a Nazi massacre. The film is elevated only because events actually happened, and despite offering nothing new, the 2019 reunion during the closing credits between Max and the now elderly woman he saved as an infant (already featured in the documentary) is the film’s highlight.
REEL FACTS
• The Boy in the Woods is based on Maxwell Smart’s experiences in the formerly Polish town of Buczacz, now part of Ukraine. He didn’t share his story until a few years ago, when filmmaker Rebecca Snow contacted him, informing him that he was one of only 100 survivors from the town’s 8000 residents.
• Although set in Eastern Europe, The Boy in the Woods was filmed in Ontario, Canada.
• Impressionist artist Maxwell Smart, now 95, owns two art galleries in Montreal, Canada. Here is his website: artbymaxwell.com
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