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Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

Denial is rousing and righteous in all the predictable ways

DENIAL (Mick Jackson). 110 minutes. Opens Friday (October 7). See listings. Rating: NN


In the late 90s, the Holocaust went on trial in a bizarre libel suit. Author and Hitler sympathizer David Irving sued historian Deborah Lipstadt, who called him a Holocaust denier for repeatedly claiming that the catastrophic event didn’t happen. Lipstadt’s legal team had to go to court to prove that it did in fact happen.

That publicity stunt of a trial gets a spotlight in this manicured legal drama that seems hungry for awards.

Rachel Weisz awkwardly tries on a Queens accent to play Lipstadt, whose main function is to keep quiet during the trial and then offer catchy sound bites in the wings to explain its significance. She’s flanked by Tom Wilkinson as a defence attorney who’s all kinds of terrific at dropping the mic, and Timothy Spall, playing up his slimy affectations as Irving.

The movie is rousing and righteous in predictable ways, a safe-bet crowd pleaser.

But it rarely feels intimate its characters often turn casual moments outside the theatricality of the courtroom into an opportunity for a sermon or an anecdote. There’s an artificiality to all this that doesn’t sit right in a story about nailing down the truth.

The only genuine emotion is during a silent, observational moment at Auschwitz, when we’re reminded that victory in this particular contest is simply acknowledging the piled-up shoes and spectacles behind a glass wall. 

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