Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- ``The Boy in the Striped Pajamas'' is a Holocaust film seen from the perspective of a naive 8-year-old child, the son of a Nazi commander general.

Bruno (Asa Butterfield) becomes our eyes in war-damaged Western Europe. We endure painful family dinners as his mother (Vera Farmiga) becomes increasingly self-deluded about the war around them.

Bruno's father (David Thewlis) is transferred to Auschwitz, taking his family from their beautiful Berlin mansion to a much more modest environment. Lonely and upset, Bruno begins wandering around his new home, when he stumbles onto an enclosed area that his parents refer to as ``the farm.'' That's where he sees Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), a boy wearing striped pajamas, on the other side of the fence.

The two boys become friends, and soon they're spending time together on a daily basis. That relationship, deftly handled by director Mark Herman, leads them down an ultimately terrifying path.

``The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,'' from Miramax Films, opens today in New York. Rating: ***

`Role Models'

Any movie featuring a cast of foul-mouthed 8-year-olds seems destined for mediocrity.

Throw in Paul Rudd (who usually does sidekick roles) and Seann William Scott (who played the obnoxious Stifler in the ``American Pie'' films) in leading roles, and the bar drops lower.

In ``Role Models'' directed by David Wain, Danny (Rudd) and Wheeler (Scott) play co-workers at an energy-drink company that sponsors a keep-kids-off-drugs program. They go from school to school pretending to be do-gooders when all they're really doing is hawking their Minotaur-brand drinks.

The setup leads to a few funny scenes where the miserable, misanthropic Danny speaks with too much candor about life, love and sex to his underage audience. The duo is eventually arrested, sentenced to community service, and sent to an adult-child mentoring program.

Danny gets paired with Christopher Mintz-Plasse (``Superbad''), an underdeveloped teen who's into ridiculous role-playing games; Wheeler, an energetic and annoying doofus, gets stuck with a swearing, sneering little kid (Bobb'e J. Thompson) whose screen time is spent spouting cringe-worthy, lewd jokes.

Rudd, who co-wrote the film, is fine as the bleary-eyed character upset with his own failings. We saw him in similar roles in ``Knocked Up'' and ``The 40-Year-Old Virgin.'' Scott has his irritating, goofy shtick down, always seeming to pull from his role in the ``American Pie'' movies. Jane Lynch (``Talladega Nights'') plays the director of the mentor program, and she delivers her dirty lines as crisply as the rest of them.

``Role Models,'' from Universal Pictures, opens today across the U.S. Rating: *1/2

`The Guitar'

In ``The Guitar,'' Melody (Saffron Burrows) has just learned she has incurable cancer. She's about to tell her boyfriend when he breaks off the relationship. His reason? He needs to find his ``inner child.''

Undefeated, Melody walks away from her old life and moves into a swank Manhattan sublet where she decides to change everything she's ever been accustomed to. She figures, if her own body can't recognize herself, how can the cancer stick with her?

A vegetarian pre-diagnosis, Melody becomes a meat-eater, stuffing herself with beef, chicken and everything else.

Retail Therapy

She throws her clothes off a balcony, browses through heaps of catalogs on her living room floor and runs up the balance of every credit card she owns. One of the things she buys is a red Fender Stratocaster guitar, which she teaches herself to play.

When a delivery man (Isaach de Bankole) comes to drop off more extravagant purchases, she invites him in. A pizza girl (Paz de la Huerta) brings her a pie and Melody has her in as well. She starts affairs with both of them.

Burrows, with her expressive face and lithe, almost giraffe- like stature, makes for a great lead in the directorial debut of Amy Redford, Robert Redford's daughter.

The film likes to show a lot of skin, but the situation is so odd, it's likable.

``The Guitar,'' from Lightning Media, opens today in New York. Rating: **1/2

What the Stars Mean:

****          Excellent
***           Good
**            Average
*             Poor
(No stars)    Worthless

(Morgan Grice is a reporter for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Morgan Grice in New York at mgrice@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 7, 2008 00:01 EST