"Making Choices in Evil Times"

"Good," which opens in limited release Wednesday, is set in Germany during the 1930s and '40s. Viggo Mortensen plays John Halder, a well-regarded, morally decent college professor who has a crazy wife, two unloving children and a whiny mother with dementia. His only real friend is the outspoken, gregarious Jewish shrink Maurice, played by Isaacs. Halder finds himself embraced by the Nazis because of a novel he has written on the need for compassionate euthanasia.

"Good" is just one of several films released this year dealing with Nazis and World War II, including "Defiance," which also opens Wednesday, and "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," "The Reader" and "Valkyrie." The issues raised by World War II remain strikingly contemporary, noted "Good" director Vicente Amorim.

"World War II is such a strong metaphor for human behavior," he says. "We wanted 'Good' to be as much about what's happening in the world today as it is about what happened in Germany in the 1930s -- the decisions that made the rise of National Socialism possible are very, very similar to the ones we make in our everyday lives today."