A Bittersweet Review of My Neighbor Adolf – Saying Goodbye to Udo Kier
A heartfelt My Neighbor Adolf review honoring Udo Kier, blending humor, humanity, and cultural insight into his unforgettable final role.
The day after watching My Neighbor Adolf, I read of the passing of Udo Kier. This review is bittersweet and took me a while to write. I’m rarely struck by celebrity deaths, but some actors catch us at pivotal moments in our lives and stick with us. I discovered Udo Kier while watching My Own Private Idaho with college friends, many of whom had seen it a peculiar number of times because Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix were dreamy. Udo Kier was much more my type, flamboyant and unique with those eyes and full of camp. Ever since, every moment Kier has popped up in a film, I light up. I’ll even point at the screen and yelp, “It’s Udo Kier!”
So I’m here, writing this review, grateful that this man started his career before I was even born and has given the world decades of characters from Dracula to Hans to Herman in My Neighbor Adolf. So here’s my review and my farewell to the striking, talented, authentic Udo Kier.
It’s a clever and dark concept. A Holocaust survivor believes Adolf Hitler is still alive and has moved into the long-time vacant neighboring home. What happens when trauma confronts its source across a garden fence? And Director Leon Prudovsky crafts this dark concept into a touching film about survival and friendship, cast so perfectly with Kier as the possible monster next door.
The first five minutes is happiness before the War, just a few minutes in Polsky’s life before his world ends. His wife, his parents, and his children. So when we cut to the 60s in South America and see him older and alone, obsessively tending a single rose bush exactly as his wife did, we know. And that quiet moment is devastatingly beautiful.
David Hayman plays survivor Mr. Polsky and embodies that specific kind of vigilance that haunts trauma survivors. He is a free man who now lives in his own prison of self-imposed isolation and hyperawareness. So when Herman moves in next door, of course, his mind goes to the worst-case scenario. And Mr. Polsky will do anything to prove his new neighbor is Hitler himself.
Kier’s portrayal of Herman is simultaneously sweet and menacing. He might be the worst villain in history, sitting with his German Shepherd and painting with mediocre talent. He might just be a man who looks like the worst villain in history with the same interests. In any case, the two strike up a friendship: one in hopes of gathering intel, the other in hopes of finding friendship in his own complicated and confined world.
Prudovsky and co-writer Dmitry Malinsky explore the human need for connection that persists in the aftermath of something as devastating as the Holocaust. And it touches on the complicated motives that come from such trauma.
This is a wonderful piece in Udo Kier’s collection of characters. Even when we are unsure of who he is in the film, we can’t stop finding the humanity in him. We root for him to find connection, and in the darkest parts of the film when we think he might be the darkest human in history, we still feel empathy for him. And Hayman is beautifully tragic as he goes back and forth between seeking friendship and pursuing a war criminal.
Goodbye, Udo Kier. You have gifted us decades of your talent. You played monsters with delicate beauty and camp with unexpected depth.
Opens January 9
New York, NY // Quad Cinemas
Los Angeles, CA // Lumiere Cinema
FAQ for My Neighbor Adolf
Q: Is My Neighbor Adolf based on a true story?
A: No. The film is fictional, but it draws from real post-war history involving Nazi escapes to South America.
Q: Does Udo Kier play Hitler in the film?
A: The movie keeps this ambiguous, and that mystery is central to the story’s suspense.
Q: Is the film more drama or comedy?
A: It’s a blend—dark humor, emotional drama, and moments of fun-loving charm woven together with care.
A heartfelt My Neighbor Adolf review honoring Udo Kier, blending humor, humanity, and cultural insight into his unforgettable final role.