Film Review – The Optimist

March 11th, 2026 | POSTED BY Allen Almachar

World War II and The Holocaust continues to be a source of endless stories, whether it is about military strategy, unspeakable horror, or profound acts of humanity. Writer/director Finn Taylor’s The Optimist (2023) recounts the true story of Herbert Heller, a Jew from Czechoslovakia who – along with his family – were captured by the Nazis and sent to the infamous Auschwitz-Berkenau concentration camp at 12 years old. After witnessing the atrocities that took place there, as well as the loss of several of his family members, Heller miraculously escaped the camps, reunited with his mother, and remained in hiding until the end of the war. They would eventually emigrate to the U.S. and settle in California, where he would raise a family of his own.

The film covers the harrowing time in Heller’s life, but it is not necessarily about what happened. Rather, the focus is on the lingering effects it caused all the way up to old age. We meet Heller (Stephen Lang) sixty years later as an older man and owner of a toy store in Marin County. Realizing that he doesn’t have much time left, Heller feels compelled to – for the first time ever – share his story with others. He does so not to be remembered himself, but to tie the past with the present in hopes of a better future. He befriends Abby (Elsie Fisher) a teen currently staying at a rehab facility due to her own personal troubles. The two find a kinship with one another – a kind of connection through understanding and shared trauma.

Taylor’s writing and direction structures The Optimist as a standard, straightforward drama. The narrative is structured through a series of flashbacks, where Heller recalls his past to Abby as a young boy (played by Luke David Blumm). In a measured, matter-of-fact tone, Heller describes how his parents (Slavko Sobin, Stella Stocker) saw the signs of German influence starting to spread throughout central and eastern Europe, remained optimistic that it would not change their way of life too drastically, and then getting blindsided by reality. First it was being forced to wear Star of David patches, then getting removed from their home, and then to the camps where starvation, slave work, disease, and death awaited them. The cinematography (Antonio Riestra, Alexander Surkala) distinguishes flashbacks and present time with deliberate color choices. Where the present is filled with bright, springtime colors, the past is defined with autumn browns and yellows. By the time we see the younger Heller arrive at Auschwitz, the color is nearly completely drained out of the frame, leaving us with a cold, helpless foreboding.

Taylor sets up The Optimist as a tale of two people from opposite ends of life finding common ground. However, in execution, the balance clearly favors one side more than the other. Because Heller’s flashbacks are supplemented with period specific costuming, sets, and props, his story becomes the central point of interest. We don’t learn much about Abby until the second half of the runtime. We discover her troubling family life, the confusion with her own identity and budding sexuality, and the choices that would lead her to the rehab facility. Unfortunately, none of that is anywhere near as compelling as what we learn of Heller. Because Abby’s story is kept mostly a secret early on, our interest in her wanes. Every time we cut away from Heller’s fight for survival against the Nazis, the narrative noticeably dips in momentum. 

Stephen Lang has built a reputation as a tough, imposing character actor. From his roles in the Avatar and Don’t Breathe franchises, Lang has taken roles of beefy men of authority. That is not the case with Herbert Heller. We see Lang play a much more vulnerable, meek, and soft-spoken character. His physical frame even seems smaller, as though his shoulders have shrunk, and his walk carefully minds where he places his steps. But the effectiveness of Lang’s work is not just in his physical transformation. He plays Heller as friendly and charming. It’s as though he has locked away the memories of his youth in a psychological box, so that he doesn’t allow anyone to see the ghosts that have followed him. When he finally opens up and shares himself with Abby, he will routinely stop to ask if what he is describing is too overwhelming for her. When he sees her dealing with her own issues, he willingly provides the advice and reassurance a grandparent would give their grandchildren. Lang plays Heller as understated and gentle, and that is what brings the role to life.

In contrast, Elsie Fisher is given a more thankless part as Abby. I’m not sure if Abby is a totally fictitious character or if she represents an amalgamation of people the real-life Heller spoke with, but she feels more like a construction than a living, breathing person. That has nothing to do with Fisher’s skillset as an actor, but in comparison to Heller, Abby is clearly the second fiddle. Fisher makes the most of what is given, inhabiting Abby as a jaded, hurt person in need of empathy and understanding. Abby may not have gone through the atrocities her onscreen partner has, but her life is also filled with darkness and guilt. The connection with Heller works as an exhaust valve where Abby can release some of that pent up tension, and Fisher does an admirable job of interpreting that. Perhaps Abby’s story would be more engaging in a movie where she is the lead.

The Optimist is a good, but not great film. It doesn’t reach the heights of other true-life stories of people going through WWII and The Holocaust, but that doesn’t dissipate the fact that it needed to be told. I may not have liked every artistic or stylistic choice, but I appreciated the care and delicacy Taylor and the rest of the crew brought to the production.

Alexander Surkala, Antonio Riestra, Avatar, Don't Breathe, Elsie Fisher, Finn Taylor, Luke David Blumm, Slavko Sobin, Stella Stocker, Stephen Lang, The Optimist