APT PUPIL (1998) ** There are literary risks, extreme literary risks, and literary risks not worth the time to take them. Stephen King's efforts to force his audience to identify with a Nazi war criminal, not entirely rehabilitated if such a thing could be possible, even, probably fall squarely between the two latter categories. It definitely leaves viewers with the intended effects of unassociated guilt and nausea. Ian McKellen is the villain, not entirely bereft of qualities but none of them on the magnitude of redeeming, would have been even scarier without Brad Renfro looking and sniffing around like a boutique ad/hamster and bringing the drama more towards the level those Reagan-era things about teenagers fighting off Russian invasions. Bryan Singer never overplays his part, never over-directs, playing his few flashy cards early and then relying on the narrative to exude its distasteful stench.
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