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Having established his credentials as a political film maker of some repute with films such as "Z" (1968) and "Missing" (1982), Gavras has since had a chequered career. "Music Box" is a typically charged political Pandora's Box in which celebrated Hungarian immigrant Mike Laszlo (Mueller-Stahl), a retired blue-collar worker, is accused of once heading an SS death squad. Mike's attorney daughter, Ann (Lange) defends him in court but doubts concerning his complicity linger.
An effective enough courtroom drama which returned Gavras to critical and commercial favour, "Music Box" gets by on the strength of some very committed performances. Mueller-Stahl is especially good, conveying at first incredulity and then disarming duplicity as the truth slowly worms its way out from his web of deceit. Lange is also in form, especially in the latter stages when forced to confront the truth and her misplaced filial loyalty.
But for all the film's obvious integrity it's burdened by a pace that is sluggish in the extreme - the courtroom sequence is terminally protracted - which renders the proceedings curiously uninvolving and the notion of guilt, culpability, and their relation to the passage of time is poorly explored. Ultimately, watchable but diluted fare which displays courage but little conviction.
