Seeing the French Resistance through the eyes of little kids yields a cutesy, simplistic and sentimental would-be fable in “War of the Buttons.”
The story, based on a novel that’s been filmed three times before with variations, is this time set in the Loire in 1944, where a small town endures the German-backed Vichy regime. In a dispute over hunting rights, two gangs of kids start a mock war — captured prisoners get their buttons cut off — that grows increasingly violent and alarming. Meanwhile, the leader of one gang (Jean Texier) strikes up a friendship with a Jewish girl (the charming Ilona Bachelier) who is hiding out in the town.
The parallels between the kids’ war and the real one are made far too obvious by Christophe Barratier, who made the equally treacly “The Chorus” and infests the movie with nonstop musical goo. Important issues, such as what to do about the Vichy traitors after the war, are raised, only to be shrugged off. Difficulty, to put it mildly, doesn’t interest Barratier as he arranges everything to be as comfy and cloying as possible.