Walking with the Enemy

A compelling story is clumsily told in debut director Mark Schmidt's à clef account of the wartime heroics of Pinchas Rosenbaum. Jonas Armstrong plays Elek Cohen, a Hungarian-Jewish character inspired by Rosenbaum. In 1944, he impersonates SS officials in order to help Budapest's Jewish community avoid capture by the Nazis, hiding them in the Swiss embassy's Glass House annexe. Unfortunately, Armstrong lacks the gravity to distract from the Holocaust clichés that litter Kenny Golde's melodramatic screenplay, which does little to convey any sense of dread or barbarity. A subplot romance involving Hannah Tointon sums up the picture's tendency to entertain rather than enlighten. But what makes this doubly disappointing is the presence of Ben Kingsley as Hungarian leader Miklos Horthy - he narrated Richard Tranks's 2003 documentary Unsung Heroes, a far superior celebration of Rosenbaum's remarkable feats.