The Nasty Girl

From Germany comes THE NASTY GIRL, a parodistic account of the uproar caused when a precocious female student, Sonja (Lena Stolze), enters a writing competition. That in itself is not the cause of the commotion; rather, it is her chosen topic, which is the extent to which her supposedly benignly innocent hometown collaborated with the Nazis. In the course of her research, she encounters an escalating, impenetrable front of evasion, lies, bureaucratic impediments, and even personal danger.

The subject is, of course, endlessly fascinating: one of the century's great "enigmas." Unfortunately, the film's conception is too lightweight to be really involving. It's the...