It's the famous French mime Marcel Marceau (Jesse Eisenberg) and his little known exploit as a resistance fighter during the war. He and his friends receive a group of Jewish refugee children from Germany before the invasion. The war starts and they escape to the south. After scattering the children to safe homes, he joins the resistance in Lyon.

It's an interesting biopic historical drama. Here's the thing. I have no idea how Marcel Marceau sounds like. I don't actually know what he looks like. It all means that Jesse Eisenberg is fine and I have no way to judge his performance. This is a brutal WWII occupation story. Barbie with the sisters is almost impossible to watch. It's a brutal section. The movie does struggle with its tone and the level of cruelty. I do love Marcel and Emma's talk. It's a jarring switch between the humanity of Marcel and cruelty of Barbie. No matter what, Marcel Marceau is definitely worthy of a biopic for this part of his life.

The story of world-renowned mime artist Marcel Marceau's efforts during the Second World War to help Jewish children, often orphans to escape Nazi persecution is a remarkable one which deserves to be told. However unlike Marceau's own understated performances, here his life is given the full Hollywood blockbuster treatment which exaggerates and ultimately distorts the truth of what really occurred.

The film began promisingly with the framing device of General Patton's introduction of Marceau to the Allied troops after the relief of France before he gives a mime show reflecting his experience of the war. We are then flashbacked to his early life as a pre-war entertainer taking Chaplin as his inspiration, much to the disgust, it would seem, of his strict, butcher father. There's a girl in the picture too, the quiet and thoughtful neighbour's daughter who introduces him to the resistance group with which she's involved who take care of young Jewish children displaced by the growing German occupation in Poland. Marceau is attracted to join the group not just because he wants to pursue his girl but also because he finds he has genuine empathy with these homeless and often parentless kids. He can make them laugh but with his physical agility can also teach them useful tricks like how to climb and hide in trees. These particular scenes, as we will see later, act as a sort of mile-high telegram for the climax of the movie.

Marceau, his brother, girlfriend and others form a resistance group but their cover is blown by collaborators and they change tack to concentrate on getting the children under their charge across the border to neutral Switzerland although in between time, they will encounter the infamous Nazi Klaus Barbie whose baby-face masks a sadistic barbarism as he tortures and murders Resistance suspects in pursuit of his quarry.

Like I said, the story is a noble one but its sometimes sensationalist treatment of the serious subject matter undermined the stoic heroism of the main protagonists. The scene on board the train for instance when Marceau stalls Barbie while his girlfriend is hiding in the ladies's toilet behind him and especially the ending when Barbie is tipped off that Marceau and his group are about to escape and almost immediately turns up right behind them on the cold and dark Alpine paths leading to a cliff-jumping conclusion where seemingly all but one walks away unharmed, defied belief. These pumped-up thriller-type sequences are interspersed with downbeat, horrific scenes of Barbie callously gunning down suspects in an emptied public swimming baths but I found they didn't mix well.

I found the acting only serviceable with Jesse Eisenberg not really capturing the idiosyncratic spirit of the great Marceau, in the end his portrayal looked to me like one based on studied facsimile rather than genuine inspiration.

I'm the better for knowing more about this amazing true story but felt it was over-compromised in the pandering treatment we get here.

I have absolutely no idea who Eisenberg is, and consequently watched this film with no preformed opinions or expectations. Only afterwards reading others' (mostly) negative comments did I realise that (I assume) he's better known for different types of role. Well, without the baggage and preconceptions, I think he gave a pretty good performance. I found it believable and nothing struck me as being either over- or underdone.

That being said, give it a few days when I'll have forgotten most of the specifics of this film, and I will probably once again have no idea who Eisenberg is. It's not an OSCAR-worthy performance, but it's acceptable.

The story itself I found engaging, all the better for being based on true events, and I have no regrets at having made the time to watch it. I probably won't watch it a second time in a few years, once it's a distant memory, but that's more to do with having lots that I do want to rewatch, and (probably) not enough time left to fit them all in.

Can I, though, take a moment to give 10/10 to the reviewer who commented "So Marcel Marceau was a Resistance fighter, huh? He kept that quiet." :-) Best one-liner I've read in ages!