YMMV / The Devil's Arithmetic

• Anvilicious: The film changes a lot of Hannah's simple naivety about her heritage into making her an ignorant teenager. For example, in the book, it's mentioned that she had drawn numbers on her arms once, several years earlier (and she's only twelve, so that probably makes her no older than eight or nine at the time of the incident), to look like her grandfather, having no idea what the numbers symbolized or why he freaked out when she showed him. This is changed in the film to her trying to get a tattoo - just so she can go on about her stupidity and ignorance later. Overall it gives the impression that modern teenagers should be punished for not knowing about the horrors of the Holocaust.
• Faux Symbolism: At the start of the film, Hannah is about to get a tattoo but is stopped because she is late for dinner. As well as being a foreshadowing of the concentration camp tattoos the Jews are forced to get, it also indicates Hannah's lack of enthusiasm for Judaism—traditionally Jews are forbidden to get tattoos.
• Funny Moments:
  • At Passover, Hannah is helping herself to plenty of wine, and whispers to Aunt Eva "I'm loaded." Eva finds this Actually Pretty Funny.
  • Dark humour, but Hannah/Chana talks with Leah when they're being put to work in the camp about how beautiful the wedding was. Leah deadpans that "it would have been nicer if we'd had the wedding cake!"
• Harsher in Hindsight: Hannah/Chana sacrifices herself to save Rivka from the gas chambers. Brittany Murphy died in 2009 while Kirsten Dunst and Louise Fletcher outlived her. What's more is that Brittany was found dead in a bathroom. Chana also takes Rivka's place because her illness marks her as being more vulnerable - and Brittany Murphy died of health problems as a result of not getting her pneumonia or anaemia checked out.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Ariel getting Hannah/Chana the photograph taken of her and Rivka right before they were taken away. She gives it to Rivka, and it's later shown to her in Aunt Eva's house fifty years later.
  • Hannah realising that Rivka will grow up to become her Aunt Eva. Rivka says she'll rename herself Eva if she survives, and Hannah happily reassures her that she will. Rivka chose to rename herself that after hearing Hannah's stories of her aunt, as thanks for how her stories of the future gave her hope.
  • When she finds herself back in the future, Hannah greets her aunt as "my Rivka".
• Jerkass Woobie: The female overseer, the Blokova, in the book. She's a petty tyrant who lords her small amount of power over the other prisoners while clearly having zero sympathy at all for them, but ultimately she's a prisoner too, and her position does not shield her from the brutality that comes with life in the camp; on the contrary, the tradeoff for the tiny amount of power she wields is that if she fails to keep control of the other prisoners, she faces horrific punishment of her own.
• Narm: Some of Kirsten Dunst's reactions when Hannah is first transported to the past - particularly her flat delivery of "will you repeat what you just said?" - though thankfully she gets much better as the movie goes on.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The Wham Shot of little Sarah walking away from the wedding only to find Nazi wagons approaching. It's at this point that the audience realises just what is about to happen to all the Jews - Hannah/Chana included.
  • During the ride in the cattle car, a pregnant lady realises that she must make herself look smaller and she spends the entirety of her time in the film trying to hide her pregnancy.
  • The women being forced to strip as they enter the camp is quite frightening, due to the scary attitude of the guards.
  • Chana's realisation that the escape attempt won't work and the men are doomed to fail - as they don't listen to her anyway.
• Retroactive Recognition: Shmuel is played by Daniel Brocklebank, who would become a regular on Coronation Street.
• She Really Can Act: Brittany Murphy was always heavily associated with romantic comedies that were light and unchallenging. Fans often pointed to this to show that she could do an against type role in a different genre.
• Tear Jerker:
  • As the Jews are getting dragged off the cattle car, you see Leah and Shmuel clutching onto each other. It's the last time they'll ever get to be together. There's also something very tragic about Leah still wearing her wedding dress as she's taken to the camp.
  • Rivka's mother Mina being taken away. It's one of the few times Rivka breaks, and she screams desperately as it happens.
  • Chana's eventual death in the gas chambers, along with Sarah. Throughout the whole thing she hugs the little girl tightly, trying to make sure she's not scared.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: While the film tones down some of the more graphic elements of the book, it is still very horrifying and distressing what happens. Dustin Hoffman (who acted as producer) even remarked that his daughter would probably be hurt by seeing it, but said "I guess it's the good kind of hurt."

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