Apt Pupil

A film by Bryan Singer (USA, 1998),

with Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro, Elias Koteas, David Schwimmer, Joe Morton, Bruce Davison.

When Todd, a quiet model pupil recognizes in his old neighbour next door a former nazi officer, he strangely decides to have the old man tell him everything his school teacher and books will never say, at least not that vividly, in exchange for his silence. An ambiguous relationship imbued with mixed fascination and fear from both ends starts to settle between the two characters...

Breakthrough director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects) thumbs his nose at Hollywood and makes it clear he won't stick to the track: the subject he chose with Apt Pupil is definitely uneasy and unlikely to gather the very same wide audience that praised for his former production. The psychological violence of the film might be hardly bearable to some to that effect as it highlights the dark sick side of the "child" within each of us. The metaphoric use of the model pupil seems to be meant to dig under the slick surface of innocence and apparent balance until the very corners of human mind ambiguity and inexplicable disorders. This accounts for the subsequent malaise that wraps the whole film. Yet, Singer doesn't play too much with Todd's character ambiguity as the boy doesn't look that nice straight from the beginning. He doesn't give any answers to the behaviour of the boy either. He just raises questions: "Do you ever wonder why you actually do what you do?" Todd asks his girlfriend at some point. No doubt Apt Pupil succeeds in depicting quite brilliantly the wheels of a relationship nurtured on power and manipulation. But it's a pity it contended itself with the relationship alone. Singer could have gone further and venture a little deeper into Todd's motives, which would have been more politically correct too. Of course, political correctness is not the ultimate goal and no question making Todd more pathological than he actually is. But something is clearly missing here... Definitely not a piece of cake admittedly.

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