Apt Pupil (1998)

Admirable film.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Apt Pupil is an adaptation of a Stephen King short story. The film is set in the mid 1980s when a smart and cocky teenager, Todd Bowden interested in World War 2 suspects a neighbour of being a fugitive Nazi.Both enter a game of oneupmanship as at first, the fugitive Nazi, Dussander (Ian McKellen) is on the back foot but the elderly man is wily and cunning and wrests control.Bowden instead of turning the fugitive into the authorities wants to hear stories of the war and concentration camps, even gets Dussander to don a Nazi uniform and the relationship brings out demons on both the characters where a strange friendship and alliance ensues. Dussander even at one point pretends to be Bawden's grandfather in order to improve his school grades.However events with a homeless man and a spell in hospital when Dussander becomes ill threatens to bring both their worlds crashing down.The film is intriguing and interesting with a sly performance by McKellen who makes his character sympathetic at first, ashamed of his past. There is an interesting cameo by Michael Byrne as a concentration camp survivor (an actor best known for playing a Nazi in an Indiana Jones film.)The film then starts to lose its way a little, becoming a little predictable, losing some tension along the way. I understand the film departs from King's novella in its conclusion and although not wholly successful the film is still worth investing your time.

Totally Believable in its Unbelievability this is a Well Made, Acted, and Fittingly Disturbing Creep-Film from Writer Stephen King and the Sophomore Movie from Director Bryan Singer. There is Definitely Talent at Work here and No Play.There is not an Ounce of Joy or Humor in this Relentlessly Downbeat Study of Young Evil meeting up with Old Evil and Discovering a Kindred Dark-Half. It is not an Easy Movie to Like and it is not an Easy Movie to Dismiss, because it Never Resorts to Horror Story Clichés or Psycho-Drama Sameness. These are Demonic Personifications. There is one, a Death Camp Nazi that got Away and is Hiding as an American Citizen ("I vote, I pay taxes), and Another, a High-School Whiz Kid about to Graduate the Top of His Class at age 16, who is an Evolving Psychopath, and Hiding in His Clean Cut Suburban Home as a Clean Cut Athlete (He was such a nice Boy, no one had any idea, you can just hear the sound bytes in the future).There are other Things going on, like Impotence, Homosexuality, Murder, and Pedophilia just in case You were not having a Good Time. But that's the Point, this isn't a Good Time. It's the Holocaust of the Past and Spree or Serial Killer of the Future Passing Each Other like Satanic Ships in the Night. Out with the Old and In with the New.

I have recently read the Novella 'Apt Pupil' and so decided to see how the film matches up as I was curious to see how certain aspects from the story would translate onto film. Whilst this isn't a bad film, it still falls short of the Novella. There are several reasons for this,but I will think that it can be boiled down to one overarching problem. Whilst Stephen King has 200 pages to build up the tension, this does not translate well to just under two hours of film. Compared to the book, the film seems rushed. I was unable to sympathise with the characters, in particular Todd and Ed French, in the same way as I was whilst reading the story, and would have liked to have seen more of Morris Heisel. The film is perhaps more realistic then compared to the Novella, but I was still disappointed.

'The Usual Suspects' is one of my favorite films, and 'Apt Pupil' is the closest that Bryan Singer has ever come to recreating the atmosphere and intensity of his prior work. 'Pupil' is a very flawed film, but still an entertaining and insightful one. I haven't read the Stephen King novella which it is based upon for quite some time, so I don't recall all of the differences between the two works.Todd Bowden is a seemingly above average high school student. In 1984, he is a sixteen year old high school senior who is also a star pitcher for his school's baseball team. Basically he is the kind of kid that every parent wishes they had, except that he has a hidden dark side. This dark side manifests itself in a morbid fascination with the horrific crimes against humanity that were committed by the third Reich. An uncredited Christopher McQuarrie opens the film with a fantastically written narration, asking whether the Nazis actions were the result of economic, cultural, or social influences. He then posits that it may simply have been human nature. On the bus home one night, Todd recognizes an old man named Kurt Dussander as one of the famous war criminals he has been obsessively studying. The look of recognition in actor Brad Renfro's eye as the camera pans in is subtly and fantastically depicted. Bowden goes to great lengths to ensure that he has the right man before he confronts him (to include analyzing fingerprints).Todd has no interest in turning the Dussander in; instead he blackmails him into giving detailed recollections of his grisly past. The movie slowly becomes a chess game between the two, and soon they are blackmailing each other. As Dussander warns, Todd is playing with fire.John Ottman's opening score was disappointing, but the rest of the music and his editing were top notch. The film's primary flaw is that ten minutes or so could have been edited out of the middle portion of the film. Elias Koteas is a great actor, but his scenes go on for far too long, to the point of undermining the suspense. Tighter editing could have made this a much more popular film in my opinion, because the performances are stunning. Most of the film consists of Ian McKellan and Brad Renfro's characters in Dussander's house, and to their credit they're always compelling.Two scenes stand out for me. One is the dinner table scene, where Dussander easily wins over Todd's entire family with effortless charm. The second is where Todd forces him to wear an SS officer's uniform procured from a costumer (Dussander wryly notes that he's been promoted when he sees the rank tabs). His gradual descent back into his former self is chilling and McKellan plays it perfectly.Brandon Boyce's script and Bryan Singer's direction are dead on, except as I already mentioned more editing was needed in the middle of the film. The last half hour was masterfully constructed, and although the ending departs from the novella I preferred it. I think it had a lot more substance and was more unnerving than King's sudden, shocker ending. Does the film rely on a two amazing coincidences (Todd recognizing Dussander, and the old man sharing a hospital room with Dussander)? You bet. Does it work? I think so.Overall it's a good film with some interesting suppositions about the nature of evil, and it's a shame that it faded into obscurity.