You know something? It's a bit of a pity that "Edges of the Lord" doesn't get the deserved attention from the press, critics and people in general. That happens in part because of its poor marketing and propaganda. The film should also have a better distribution around the world.

I like Haley Joel Osment. At first I only saw this movie for curiosity because Haley is in it. I don't even like war movies. But this one is actually a good surprise inside its genre.

This isn't like the majority of war films. Comparing to others of its kind, this one is soft when it comes to the Holocaust's horrors and violence (although it still is disturbing). But in general, this is more of a drama that takes place during the World War II in the early 1940's. It's a human movie, a story of braveness, survival, sacrifices and also about learning to accept and respect the other people. It also has some funny moments, such as the hilarious pig fart scene!

"Edges of the Lord" takes place in Poland, the country where it was filmed. One of its attributes is the natural beauty of the sceneries and landscapes: a beautiful village, lakes, trees, mountains and green places. The music is beautiful. It's a touching movie either, not just another Holocaust movie.

Haley Joel Osment and Willem Dafoe are the best known actors of this film. They're American. The others are mostly polish actors but not without a Canadian one (Richard Banel) and an English one (Liam Hess).

The fabulous Haley Joel Osment once again proves his exceptional talent and, along with the other actors, he speaks with a very convincing polish accent.

The other actors have terrific performances too, especially the kids: Liam Hess as Tolo, Richard Banel as Vladek and Ola Frycz as Maria. As for the adult actors, Olaf Lubaszenko is great as Gniecio, as well as Willem Dafoe as the Priest. The director Yurek Bogayevicz did a great job with this American-polish special production.

As for the characters, Tolo is a loving but very strange little boy. Vladek starts by being a hateable brat who's always mistreating Romek, but as the movie runs we end up liking him, because he changes his bratty attitudes, becomes a good boy and finally accepts Romek, becoming his friend and even rescues him when he needs to. Romek is the cutest and most loving kid but also a boy who is thought to disguise in perfection his religious roots. Maria is a pretty and provoking girl who also becomes a better person as the movie runs. Who I never like at all are that awful Kluba and his sons: Pyra and, most of all, that horrible Robal.

"Edges of the Lord" is a mixed bag for a movie with pluses and minuses. The reviews I've read on it so far comment on just one aspect of the film. And, I can't tell if many of them got a very subtle point of the plot. Because of some of the film's weaknesses, I couldn't get as absorbed in it as I would normally for a story of this type. Three aspects of the film stand out most to me. I'll comment on each one after a thumbnail overview of the story line.

Haley Joel Osment plays Romek, a Jewish boy of 11 in 1939 when the Germans invade Poland at the start of WW II. His parents quickly try to train him in some prayers of the Catholic faith. They have found a peasant Catholic family living in the country who will take him in to save him from the Nazis. His parents were going to try to escape on their own. Romek's new family has two boys. One is about a year older than him – Vladek, played by Richard Banel. The other is younger, about seven – Tolo, played by Liam Hess. Their small hamlet has a priest, played by Willem Dafoe. These are the main characters.

There are other characters of course, and as the story moves along, we see everyone and the various incidents as through the eyes of Romek. And, that is key, because it's a story about a boy who was raised Jewish and in a city now being thrust into and experiencing a very different culture. I don't want to give away the ending, but it's the crux of the film, along with Romek's survival. Romek expresses his thanks for these people who didn't try to make him something he wasn't. Now, that's the story and the message.

This type of thing was repeated many times and in many places in Europe, so that Jewish people could be hidden and spared from the Nazi pogrom. One of the best movies that shows this on a broad scale is "The Assisi Underground." That was a true story, based on a book and produced by the author, a Jewish journalist who arrived at Assisi with the Allies during the war. There are other very good movies like this as well.

On the message level, this film is very good. And, the acting is very good by the entire cast – the Polish extras and bit players included. The problems with the film are mostly with the screenplay, the directing and editing. Some specific strong points are scenes of the boys watching the trains at night that are transporting Jews to death camps. Some of the people escape from the trains, and the Nazis hunt them down. We hear shouts in the distance and gunshots. One of the older boys preys on fleeing people for any valuables or good clothing they may still have. Other scenes add to the main plot. The boys see the priest try to catch pigs in order to save the lives of an elderly farm couple who had been hiding pigs. Of course he can't catch the pigs, and the Nazi officers get a good laugh at his futile attempts and rolling on the ground. They then shoot the woman and then the man in the head. The scenes of the priest instructing the children are part of the main plot, as are those with Romek and the priest as he explains Holy Communion to Romek.

So far, so good. But, then there are several other scenes that are extraneous to the story. These unnecessary sub-plots distract one from the main story. Several of these are about extreme behaviors on the part of the young Tolo, having to do with religion. He wears a cap under which he has made a type of crown of thorns. He asks his brother and Romek to tie him to a tree as if to be crucified. Toward the end, Tolo identifies himself with the Jews on the train. He denies being the brother of Vladek, and the Nazis put him on the death train. What that has to do with the story, I don't know. Was it an effort to mock religion?

The editing of the movie with these and other unrelated scenes woven in is not very fluid. So, the film is hackneyed and confusing. It distracts from the main focus. The playing and pranks of the children go on too long. A drunken neighbor peasant who later kills the father of the boys is a distraction. And, toward the end, we see nothing of reaction by the mother or village over Tolo's leaving on the train.

This film is hardly in the tradition of "Life is Beautiful." It has a good premise – to show that there were good people in Poland, including Catholic clergy, who risked their lives to help save Jews. And, as in this case, without requiring or forcing cultural or religious changes on the Jews. If this movie had stuck to that without the several mini-plots that it veers off into at times, it could have been much better– perhaps even a great film. But, as it is, the diversions, distractions, choppy script, weak direction and poor editing take too much away from the impact this film might otherwise have had.

"Edges of the Lord" is a beautifully shot film. The interior of peasant homes and the Polish countryside glow.

"Edges" includes some unforgettable performances. Willem Dafoe is stunning as nobody's ideal -- and yet very loving -- priest. Haley Joel Osment reveals, yet again, that he has more heart and talent in his pinkie than many bigger stars have in their whole bodies.

Liam Hess, as Tolo, an eight year old peasant child with a Messiah complex, is reason enough alone to see the movie. I've never seen anything like his performance. He is mesmerizing. Had this film received a theatrical release, Hess' performance would be legendary by now.

HJO plays Romek, a Jewish boy who, during the Holocaust, is sent to live with a Polish peasant family. During his time there he has fights, and makes friends, with Polish peasant children. An older girl, teenage Maria, tries to introduce him to love.

This coming of age tale occurs with the Holocaust in the background. Trains of Jews pass through the village; villagers rob escaping Jews. Three Polish peasant characters are shot to death for defying Nazi orders. A pall of menace hangs over every word and deed.

Tolo, who looks younger than eight, takes it upon himself to sacrifice for the suffering humanity he sees around him. He asks to be crucified. He attempts to perform a miracle. Upon learning that Jesus was Jewish, Tolo claims to be Jewish -- to a Nazi. In the end, Tolo does perform a sacrifice, one the viewer did not expect.

Viewers can't fully understand this movie without understanding the background of Polish Jewish relations. Both Polish Catholics and Jews suffered under the Nazis. Nazis, though, targeted Jews for complete elimination, and came dreadfully close to carrying out that evil end.

In recent years, loud voices have claimed that Poles did not do enough to rescue Jews, or that Poles celebrated, or participated in, the Holocaust that occurred, largely, on Polish soil. Poles, less well organized, have tried to present a more complicated picture -- one in which any Pole who helped any Jew in any way risked death not just for himself, the helper, but for his entire family. Poles also point out that there are more Poles honored among the righteous at Yad Vashem than any others.

Too, Poles point out, World War Two was just the latest catastrophe, for Poles, in a two century long history of catastrophes, including domination by hostile Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Poles suffered horribly under the Nazis. There were Poles in Auschwitz, on mass transport trains, and in gas chambers.

Needless to say, this short review can't honor all the competing narratives that serve as backdrop to this movie.

As a viewer, I can say that this film was not a complete success for me aesthetically. Watching films about genocide is hard. If I am going to invest time in such an endeavor, I want to feel that the investment was worthwhile -- that I learned something, or grew as a person, from the experience. Genocide films that have worked for me have included "The Pianist" and "Hotel Rwanda." Both films focused on a single strand narrative that followed one character I deeply cared about.

"Edges of the Lord" does not follow a single strand narrative focused on one charismatic character. Though I liked many, I never became intimately involved with any of the characters. The film's focus is too diffuse, switching from narrative strand to narrative strand.

And then there are the political issues. I can understand the desire to make a film that communicates that World War Two was a tortuous, chaotic prison for all Poles. The Bad Poles here -- the ones who rob escaping Jews -- are bad Poles, period. They also betray their own Polish Catholic neighbors to the Nazis. One, the script makes clear, has performed unnatural acts with sheep. And he rapes a beloved female character.

At one point, a priest confronts a Polish criminal with his crime. The criminal says, "Who are you going to report me to?" World-War-Two-era Poland was a land without justice. The good Poles did was erased, often, by their murder at the hands of Nazis. Bad Poles faced no court of justice; rather, they profited from others' misfortunes.

That this film communicates that understanding is a good thing.

There are political issues in a film in which Tolo, a Polish Catholic boy, a child of the "Christ of Nations," volunteers to be crucified, symbolically, and, ultimately, in a real way, as a gesture of solidarity with suffering Jews. This is an issue that deserves discussion. But, unfortunately, this film was all but buried. It received no theatrical release, and little press. That is a shame.

I do have mixed feelings about this film as an aesthetic product and a political statement, but I also must recommend it for anyone who would like to see an unforgettable performance by a child actor, and for persons interested in seeing the Holocaust from an alternative point of view.