As the Russians advanced and it became apparent Germany would lose World War II, Adolf Hitler remained steadfast in defiance of any surrender. He willfully allowed Berlin to fall around him, eventually committing suicide rather than be taken prisoner. Director Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Oscar-nominated “Downfall,” the first German film in nearly 50 years to deal directly with Hitler’s last days, chronicles them in a matter-of-fact but highly effective fashion.

There is a frustrating lack of knowledge about what transpired in Hitler’s bunker as Berlin fell in 1945, but screenwriter Bernd Eichinger has mined two books, “Inside Hitler’s Bunker” and Traudl Junge’s “Until the Final Hour: Hitler’s Last Secretary,” to craft a complex screenplay that gives depth to these moments. The film opens in 1942 when Hitler personally hires Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) to be his final stenographer and secretary, but it quickly cuts to April 20, 1945.

Hitler spends much of his time in his war room, barking orders to various generals as they try to convince him to give up. He descends into a spiral of paranoia and denial before coming to the conclusion that his own death, along with his officers and colleagues, is the only way out. As Hitler, Bruno Ganz (a long way from “Wings of Desire”) gives an uncanny performance, ripe with frightening authenticity – no doubt the greatest and most memorable Hitler in screen history.

Some have suggested that the film makes Hitler seem a sympathetic figure. Certainly, Mr. Ganz’s Hitler is not drawn as the stereotype caricature we often see (even in authentic newsreel footage). That does not stop him from coming off as the vile, deranged villain that he was. The supporting actors are also very fine. Juliane Kohler plays Eva Braun as a brainwashed sheep: She plans her suicide almost gleefully, though she does allow herself one moment to complain that her lover is a shadow of his former self, talking only of “dogs and vegetarian meals.”

The film’s few battle scenes have an intense disarray to them, though they remain largely bloodless. Genuinely unsettling moments involve civilians – at one point Magda Goebbels (Corinna Harfouch), who has joined her husband to be by Hitler’s side, poisons, on camera, each of her own children as they sleep, so that they would not have to live in a world without National Socialism.

The film is leisurely paced, advancing slowly though not ponderously, although it is almost too exhaustive for its own good, running longer than 155 minutes (Hitler and Braun are already out of the picture for a half hour before the film ends).This leaves any entertainment value – if that is the correct phrase – diminished, but the total effect of the film transcends its slower moments.

Aided by an elegant and unobtrusive score by Stephan Zacharias, “Downfall” is above all things a war film, so Jews and the Holocaust are mentioned only twice, both fleetingly. This is probably accurate, as one of the chilling things about the Third Reich was how little the top leadership had to worry about the day-to-day business of genocide. For this reviewer, at least, the fact of the Holocaust still hung over the action.

Confronted about his choice to not evacuate Berlin – causing the unneeded death of German civilians – Hitler responds “They gave us their mandates, and now their throats are being cut.” We are meant to gasp at such a response, but it states a certain truth. Hitler was a monster, but he wasn’t the only one.

***

Knowing nothing about the film before seeing it, I assumed “Bigger Than the Sky” might concern astronomy. Turns out it’s about “Cyrano de Bergerac.” I have always liked “Cyrano.” I did not like this movie.

Peter (Marcus Thomas) is a sad sack whose confidence has been shot since his girlfriend walked out on him. Passing by the local community theater one day, his eye catches a poster advertising try-outs for an upcoming production of “Cyrano.” To his surprise, after a horrible audition, the theater’s director Edwina (Clare Higgins) casts him as the title character.

He soon meets and becomes friends with fellow actors, cocky Michael (John Corbett), and the beautiful and talented, albeit eccentric Grace, (Amy Smart).While a tiny love triangle is developing between the three, Peter soon finds himself losing the role of Cyrano to the more talented, though pompous, Ken (Sean Astin). What, do you wager, are the odds that Peter will win back the role by opening night?

There’s a cute moment here and there, mostly involving Mr. Astin’s mother, Patty Duke, who plays dual roles, but otherwise “Bigger Than the Sky” is lightweight, drawn out, and sitcom-like. The plot is as predictable as they come, and the dialogue ranges from weak comedy (“You don’t pour your heart out to your sister – it’s like taking your sister to the prom,” Peter confesses to his sister. “I had fun at your prom.” She responds. Ba dum bum.) to annoying pretension (“Those of us who live in the theater deal with death every day,” Edwina remarks at a friend’s funeral).

The saving grace is Ms. Smart, who has become more likeable with each subsequent film she is featured in. Eminently watchable, she is charming, attractive, and charismatic. Too bad she’s so often stuck in mediocre fare such as this.