The Diary of Anne Frank (2009)

IMDb plot summary: Based on the diary of a teenage girl in hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.
Directed by Jon Jones. Starring Ellie Kendrick, Iain Glen, Tamsin Greig, and Geoff Breton.

(Spoilers, I suppose, though if you know the story at all you know how it ends.)

This is a good, solid adaptation of the book. There's a fine line to walk with playing the character of Anne -- she's a flighty and vain young girl but she shouldn't be an unpleasant character. Ellie Kendrick is excellent and makes her a likable character while still showing that she is still a fairly immature young teen. That's partly what makes her story so relatable, that in the midst of this dark, dark time, she spends so much time worrying about her inexperience with boys and how annoying she finds her mother. The rest of the cast is good as well, but Kendrick is the highlight here, seeing as how she pretty much carries the film.

I was particularly moved by how the ending was filmed. Seeing a short description of each character's fate as we watch them descend the stairs is somehow even more chilling than if a more graphic ending had been chosen. Something about the calm display of names and death dates really lets it sink in to the viewers that all these people whose lives we've been watching were caught just too early, and if they'd managed to stay hidden just another couple of months, they would have been all right.

3.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Diary of Anne Frank > The Slipper and the Rose
The Diary of Anne Frank < The Artist
The Diary of Anne Frank > A Separation
The Diary of Anne Frank < Hamlet (2009)
The Diary of Anne Frank < One, Two, Three
The Diary of Anne Frank < The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
The Diary of Anne Frank < Last Year at Marienbad
The Diary of Anne Frank > Men in Black
The Diary of Anne Frank > Connie and Carla
The Diary of Anne Frank < Full Metal Jacket
Final spot: #899 out of 2437.