Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

room102 Based on a novel, the movie follows a journalist investigating the story of a French Jewish girl during WW2 in France. The movie goes back and forth between 1942 and 2002. Although the plot itself is fiction, it deals with true events that happened in France during that time.Good direction, good production and excellent acting by the young actress playing Sarah (it's a shame she wasn't nominated for any award).The film is very moving (brought tears to my eyes more than once) and although it's not nearly as "harsh" as "In Darkness (2011)" and not based on a true story, the plot is more interesting.The second half of the movie changes direction, so it's not as good as the first half. Still, a very good movie.

Christine Merser Six million Jews died in the Holocaust. Sarah's Key is yet another story about a family who was sent to the camps, torn from their home in the dead of night, never to return. Between Shindler's List, Anne Frank, and oh so many others, we have seen scenes of mothers being separated from their kids over and over again. And yet, each time feels like the first time. Sarah's Key is yet another drama set in the darkest time in modern history, and there are no real surprises in it. You know exactly what is going to happen, but you still hope until the last minute that there will somehow be a happy ending. I can't help wondering if those millions felt that same sense of hope as they walked to their deaths in the showers.The dialogue in Sarah's Key is not great, which is why it will never be a film for future generations. The imagery and story, however, are fantastic. The movie is worth seeing because there are 6 million stories to be told about the Holocaust, and every time we see or hear one of them, we are one step closer to making sure it doesn't happen again.Of late, I have been mesmerized by new acting talent in major roles—new actors with better timing who are less "starry," and more real. Sarah's Key is no exception. The young Sarah, played by Melusine Mayance, was wonderful. Much of her performance was silent, and she was more than able to pull it off. Kristen Scott Thomas has to be the saddest actress I know. Seriously, she must be on major meds because I can't can't think of anyone who has played sadder roles. Four Weddings and a Funeral, The English Patient, The Horse Whisperer, and my personal favorite, Random Hearts. Sad. Sad. Sad. But again, the dialogue was off. When her daughter asks her if she is having an affair, her answer is that it is more complicated than that. What mother, searching for a Holocaust survivor, would tell her sixteen-year-old daughter that the search was more complicated than an affair and they can discuss it when she gets home? Really?The French are strange birds, and let's face it, during the war many of them embraced Nazism—or worse, didn't care one way or the other. But the French Resistance was the finest fighting force in all Europe, and their lives were filled with intrigue, with danger around every corner. Such complicated creatures, the French. I get to say that because I was married to a Frenchman, one whose mother lived through WWI and WWII and escaped through Portugal to America with her kids in tow. She told me that everyone has the best and the worst of human nature in them, and this movie shows that struggle between good and evil. At one point, the question is asked, "How do you know what you would have done?" I have asked myself that question many times, and few of us ever have to learn the answer.See the movie. If the subtitles are putting you off, stick with it; the second half is in English.

Emma_Stewart Sarah's Key weaves two stories together into a touching portrait of how history affects us all, long after it's happened. In July 1942, Sarah Starzynski and her Jewish family were rounded up and taken to the Vel' d'Hiv with thousands of other French Jews, where they lived for days in absolutely inhuman conditions until they were shipped to concentration camps. As they were being arrested, Sarah locked her brother in a secret closet so that he would be safe, and vowed to escape and come back for him.The second plot line revolves around Julia Jarmond, an American journalist who is on the verge of buying the apartment that Sarah lived in. She undertakes the task of finding out as much about Sarah and her family as she possibly can, uncovering secrets about her family, France, and herself along the way.Usually movies like this don't work out. I walked in expecting a sickeningly sentimental film, yet walked out devastated and with a heavy heart. Sarah's Key is absolutely harrowing, pulling no punches when it addresses France's involvement with the Nazi regime, and revealing the lingering effects that the Holocaust had on the psyches of those who survived it. The modern story isn't quite as gut-wrenching, but it is elevated by Kristin Scott Thomas in one of her best performances yet. She acts at times as a substitute for the audience: we can feel the devastation and heartbreak she feels with each new revelation and discovery. Also worth mentioning are Melusine Mayance, who gives one of the best child performances ever and in a perfect world would receive an Oscar nomination, and the moving score by the criminally underrated Max Richter which elevates the film's key emotional scenes.From the reviews I've read of Sarah's Key, the general consensus is that it could have done without the modern-day plot line. I disagree. It gave history a personal touch, which I feel most historical films lack, and acted as a conduit so that the audience could get more involved in the film. Thomas's last lines remind us of what I think the filmmakers wanted us to walk away with: that history lives on even in those who lived after it, and that is important to take to heart in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

mark_pisoni The movie is good even though I thought La Raffe (The Roundup) was a more moving take on the same subject. I saw the movie on DVD in French with English subtitles because I enjoy getting the feel for the actual language spoken as opposed to a dubbed movie and I was appalled by the pathetic mistranslations from French of the English. Many of English sentences make no sense at all. It's disgraceful to release a major movie like this and not have a competent English speaker check that the English captions are correct. Was this the work of Google Translate? How much of an investment can that be compared to the overall budget for the movie...