The Optimist Parent Guide
This film handles its painful issues with sensitivity and delivers powerful messages of hope, resilience, and second chances.
Parent Movie Review
Ruth (Robin Weigert) is a therapist at a residential treatment facility and a volunteer with an organization that records the memories of Holocaust survivors. When she’s asked to interview Auschwitz survivor Herbert Heller (Stephen Lang), Ruth initially declines but then she has an idea…
Recently admitted to the center is Abby (Elsie Fisher), an emotionally troubled teen receiving counseling for a suicide attempt. When Ruth introduces Herbert and Abby, the unlikely pair connect and the elderly man is finally able to unlock the stories he’s held inside for sixty years. As for Abby, Herbert’s gentle kindness might be enough to help her to share the devastating secret she’s keeping.
The Optimist is an unusual Holocaust film in that it somehow manages to be hopeful. Given Herbert’s catalogue of horrors – terrorized by Nazis, seized from his home, torn away from his parents, sent to Terezin and Auschwitz, witness to the brutality of camp guards, and forced to flee alone through occupied Europe – it’s astounding that he manages to build a life, family, and business in California after the war. In a remarkable feat of resilience, Herbert can clearly recognize the evils of his time and yet retain a sense of hope and wonder inherited from his father (Slavko Sobin), a man whose optimism definitely crossed over into denial.
This screenplay follows an unusual pattern, cutting back and forth between Herbert’s wartime memories and Abby’s struggle with her grief, guilt, and anguish. As Abby hears Herbert’s terrible stories, she’s able to reframe her own experiences and, eventually, realize that there’s hope for her too. As Herbert tells her, “This isn’t the end of the world. I’ve seen the end of the world. I had a ringside seat.”
There’s no doubt that The Optimist contains a significant amount of negative content, particularly on-screen suicide attempts and Holocaust-related violence. To be fair, it’s impossible to cover either topic authentically without some disturbing material and this movie handles its painful subjects with sensitivity. The film is unrated, but it clocks in at a PG-13 level, and is suitable for teens, although parents and teachers should carefully consider the suicide-related content before viewing it with a minor.
Even with the movie’s negative content, I still think it’s worth watching. The Optimist is a powerful tale of empathy, compassion, friendship, forgiveness, honesty, and hope. It’s a reminder that friendship is a rare and precious thing and that families are critical to our flourishing. (The contrast between the shelter Herbert’s parents provide during the Nazi occupation and the emotional devastation Abby suffers thanks to her parents could not be more striking.) This is a powerful tale of second chances and a vivid depiction of resilience and finding the courage to speak the truth. These messages are not only valuable for teens, but they will resonate with adults as well.
Directed by Finn Taylor. Starring Stephen Lang, Elsie Fisher, Luke David Blumm. Running time: 102 minutes. Theatrical release March 11, 2026. Updated March 12, 2026Watch the trailer for The Optimist
The Optimist
Rating & Content Info
Violence: There are several scenes of Holocaust related violence. Suicide is a theme and people commit suicide on- and off-screen. A girl is seen with blood on her neck as she undergoes a tracheotomy. A boy’s face is splattered with blood when he’s in a group being herded by the Gestapo. A man has a scar on his arm caused by the deliberate use of acid to remove a tattoo. There are scenes of bullying at school. A Jewish boy is chased by a group of boys determined to beat him up for his religion; he’s later seen with a bloody nose. The Gestapo rounds up families and forces them to leave their homes. A couple and their child jump off a roof rather than go with the Gestapo: we see them jump but do not see their bodies on the ground. Auschwitz prisoners are forced to shave the hair from corpses and then to load it in wheelbarrows and carry it to a workshop. There’s mention of Mengele’s medical experiments and screams are heard in the hospital where he works. A man commits suicide by running at an electrified fence and a boy later considers doing the same thing. A man is shot off screen. Teens make a suicide pact and are seen drinking alcohol and downing pills. A teen considers using pills to commit suicide.
Sexual Content: A married couple kiss briefly. There are brief scenes of nudity when male prisoners are assessed by guards. They keep their hands over their genitals, but buttocks are seen. There’s non-explicit mention of a teen sex worker and a fully clothed photo is shown of her with an adult client.
Profanity: The script contains five scatological curses.
Alcohol / Drug Use: Two teenagers drink alcohol and swallow unidentified pills as part of a suicide attempt. A teen stares at pills as she considers another suicide attempt.
Page last updated March 12, 2026
The Optimist Parents' Guide
You can learn more about Herbert Heller and hear his own accounts at:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Oral history interview with Herbert Heller
Memory of Nations: Herbert Heller
Home Video
Related home video titles:
There is no shortage of fine films that can help teens understand the horrors of the Holocaust. If you want to focus on loss without grisly detail, you can watch The Song of Names, which shows the devastation experienced by survivors. In The Book Thief, a young girl’s family hides Jews from the Nazis. A young Polish woman hides a group of Jews in a German officer’s home: that story is told in Irena’s Vow. A young man pushes back against Nazi propaganda, at terrible cost, in Truth & Treason. A devout Lutheran priest tries to protect his flock and fight against the regime in Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. My Best Friend Anne Frank sees two young girls ensnared in the horrors of the Third Reich’s concentration camps. The best known film about saving Jews from the concentration camps is the Oscar-award winning Schindler’s List.