'The Optimist' Review
- John Odette
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Release Date: 03/11/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Drama.
MPAA: Not Rated.
Distributor: Trafalgar Releasing.
The Verdict: A Maybe
There’s an invisible burden to holding onto painful secrets. The impacts of such a psychological strain can increase anxiety, reduce well-being, and inspire weary rumination. Unloading that weight can alleviate the pressure, but it’s sometimes all about timing and finally sharing with the right person.
This path to recovery is the engine that drives The Optimist, written and directed by Finn Taylor. This film is a true story based on Herbert Heller, a Czechoslovak-born Jew who survived both Terezin and Auschwitz-Birkenau, went into hiding, and ultimately survived World War II as a young, resourceful boy.
Stephen Lang (Avatar) portrays Heller as an older man telling his long-kept secret story to Abby (Elsie Fisher), a troubled teen facing her own painful past. The film jumps back and forth through time, with an older Heller and Abby slowly connecting over their pain in the present, and through Heller’s eyes as a young man, portrayed by Luke David Blum, as he and his parents and brother move from living a normal life before they endure house arrest and eventually deportation to the camps by the Nazis.
Writer/director Taylor, whose father is also a veteran of the Second World War, delicately balances the sensitive material. Portrayals and stories about concentration camps require a certain grace, as they're both humanity at its absolute worst and a reflection of the human spirit's endurance.
The pairing of Heller as an old man with the angsty Abby is appropriate, considering that in many respects, they’re feeling the same emotions. Abby is ‘interning’ at the clinic that is documenting Herbert’s story when she is in rehab herself, recovering from a trauma that involved drugs and alcohol.
Abby feels isolated and alone. No one believes her; her friend is dead, and the ultimate reason is a huge betrayal from someone she trusted. She has shame.
Herbert also has shame. He carries survivor’s guilt. Despite surviving the war, much of his family and what he knew is dead and buried. He would move to California, under the Redwood trees of Marin County, and build a toy store that would become a neighborhood staple for years. He decided never to tell his family about his past; his legacy would be that of joy.
"The Optimist" in this film is neither Herbert nor Abby; it’s Herbert’s father (Slavko Sobin). I suppose his seemingly naïve impression of the Nazi oppression and navigation of the camps can appear silly or credulous on screen, but viewing his father through the young, impressionable eyes of Herbert as a boy can be just enough inspirational hope to make it out alive. He believed he would be ok, because he believed his father.
While this is truly a hopeful story, it’s also a taxing one. There are a few moments of rushed exposition or hurried follow-through that feel amateurish. Some viewers may find the constant switching between timelines jarring; I didn’t get whiplash, but given the subject matter, a little more finesse should have been applied.
There are also a few beats that feel underdeveloped or could have used more time to sit with, given that the sensitive material is sometimes briefly scanned over. The Optimist is heavier on implied violence than on showing much of the brutality on screen. And while these flashback camp scenes are meant to bring context to the focus of the story, the exchange of secrets between Abby and Herbert, some of the heavier moments felt watered down. Although I can appreciate Taylor’s resistance to suppressing the showing of the horrors of Auschwitz.
The Optimist walks a precarious line. The bigger story of remembering the Holocaust atrocities does bear repeating. The more granular takeaway is that holding secrets is a false shield, a wobbly protection that gives way to a trap of one’s own making. The film’s packaging of both messages is a little flimsy, but ultimately won me over.
