Herman shoots these scenes delicately, but it also sends the film into a real storybook mode, which makes the film disturbing in ways not intended. Bruno apparently has no problem meeting up with Shmuel every day by the barbed wire, and there is never a patrolling soldier in evidence, making Auschwitz look less like Auschwitz and more like a minimum-security honor's prison farm in South Carolina. And when the reality of Auschwitz takes hold of Bruno's family, all of Herman's delicate setup is abandoned. Gretel becomes an impassioned Hitler youth, Mom deteriorates into a shallow shell of her previously vibrant self, and Dad, as played by Thewlis, turns into a buffoonish caricature -- contemptuously blowing cigarette smoke, slamming his fist on a table demanding more wine, and adopted a popeyed, addled expression like a bad guy Nazi from an old Sgt. Fury comic book.
But Herman regains his footing for the harrowing final scene of the film, when Bruno digs under the fence to help Shmuel find his father. All the pretenses of the family are shattered as the charnel house smoke finally consumes Mom, Dad, Gretel, and Bruno, and the reality of who these ordinary people really are becomes a devastating experience for both the characters and the audience.
