Give director Wolfgang Murnberger and screenwriter Paul Hengge credit for nerve. Many people could come up with a World War II-era art-forgery movie. Few would fuse that theme with a semicomic mistaken-identity plot that revolves around a Jewish gallery heir (Moritz Bleibtreu) who swaps his concentration-camp-prisoner uniform for that of his former boyhood friend (Georg Friedrich) — who now happens to be an SS officer. Both men are searching frantically for a lost Michelangelo drawing that is coveted by the führer.
On-screen friendship requires chemistry as much as a love affair does, and the connection between these men is only fitfully brought to life. What strengths there are in “My Best Enemy” come largely from Marthe Keller and Udo Samel as Bleibtreu’s parents, who give sensitive, rounded performances. And the plot is deftly handled, if never exactly surprising. The film plays mostly as an uneasily satirical thriller. The one truly witty scene involves none of the leads, as Italian and German officials argue over whose dictator will get a musical accompaniment for his state visit.
The director has cited “Inglourious Basterds” as paving the way for his own movie; but for all his boldness, Quentin Tarantino avoided the camps altogether. “My Best Enemy” shows the camps only briefly, but once it does, it becomes both too much, and not enough. Once you see even a long shot of such a place, the impulse to find humor in much of anything is gone.