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The centerpiece of this preposterous bit of historical fiction is an opulent dinner party hosted by a wealthy Hungarian-Jewish industrialist and his elegant wife, for the purpose of signing over everything they own to the Nazis in return for their safe passage to Palestine. Among those tearing into the roast...

By Bill Gallo

February 23, 2006

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The centerpiece of this preposterous bit of historical fiction is an opulent dinner party hosted by a wealthy Hungarian-Jewish industrialist and his elegant wife, for the purpose of signing over everything they own to the Nazis in return for their safe passage to Palestine. Among those tearing into the roast pig are three or four odious SS men and Heinrich Himmler himself. Adolf Eichmann doesn't get to eat, but he drops by later for coffee — served up by a pair of loyal servants (the "Aryans" of the title), who are actually Jews working in the Resistance. Seeking to dramatize a late-in-the-war Nazi fundraising policy called "The Europa Plan," director John Daly (he produced Platoon and The Last Emperor) ham-handedly exploits the horrors of the Holocaust in a glossy thriller crammed with inane dialogue, stupid chase sequences, and synthetic emotional uplift. Martin Landau is appallingly shallow as the industrialist, and the young couple are so sweetly virtuous you might find yourself drawn instead to Danny Webb's vicious, narrow-eyed Himmler.

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