A moving story that takes place in 1940's France as well as present day France and America. There's a ton of movies having to do with WWII so I was afraid it would just be another mediocre film on the subject, but I quite enjoyed this film and would recommend it to anyone.

Elle s'appelait Sarah
"Not for the fainthearted, (although most of the bits that might make a faint heart quail aren't shown), but I found this a well-acted film with an interesting story."

Sarah's Key is an interesting story that, whilst it isn't always emotionally captivating, has a small number of powerful scenes that will tear you up. Kristen Scott Thomas suits the lead role incredibly well and there are many other decent performances, too, especially from the younger actors who are the ones that make the story so compelling. It doesn't always hold your attention, but it open and ends beautifully.

Having read nothing about this film, I watched it on a whim last night and was pleasantly surprised. Not only was it a lesson in History that I wasn't fully aware of in the French deportation of Jews to Nazi concentration camps but it was a very well made film, albeit a sad one. If you like Boy in the Striped Pajamas then I recommend this.

Sometimes, you just feel like watching something gut-wrenchingly depressing that also happens to have your name in the title. I was, strangely, in the mood for a SUPER sad movie, which is why I decided to stream this on Netflix on Friday night. This fit the bill, and was actually a really well done film. I loved the jumping back and forth in time (which added a bit of mystery and connection to the present in a story that could have been fairly straight-forward), and it was incredibly well-acted. This has been on my list for awhile now, and I'm glad I finally took the depressing plunge.

Sometimes, you just feel like watching something gut-wrenchingly depressing that also happens to have your name in the title. I was, strangely, in the mood for a SUPER sad movie, which is why I decided to stream this on Netflix on Friday night. This fit the bill, and was actually a really well done film. I loved the jumping back and forth in time (which added a bit of mystery and connection to the present in a story that could have been fairly straight-forward), and it was incredibly well-acted. This has been on my list for awhile now, and I'm glad I finally took the depressing plunge.

A basically good movie that makes a few serious mistakes. Kristin Scott Thomas plays a newspaper reporter in Paris who discovers her husband's family's apartment was confiscated from a Jewish family during WWII. The intercutting between a young girl's attempt to save her life during the Holocaust and Kristin Scott Thomas's marriage problems create the impression that the film thinks they are somehow comparable, which they are surely not. Also, there's a tendency to use Thomas's newspaper colleagues to simply state the film's rhetorical points, which makes for dull pedantic scenes that bring the film to a crashing halt. The second half of the film is markedly less interesting. After having watched the girl's WWII ordeal, watching Thomas try to sort out her own feelings about it can't help but be less interesting.

Sarah's Key is an interesting story that, whilst it isn't always emotionally captivating, has a small number of powerful scenes that will tear you up. Kristen Scott Thomas suits the lead role incredibly well and there are many other decent performances, too, especially from the younger actors who are the ones that make the story so compelling. It doesn't always hold your attention, but it open and ends beautifully.

I generally have a quite big interest for World War 2, and I have seen a lot of WW2 movies, but Sarah's Key was a lot different from those I've watched before. The cinematography in this movie is great, with the switching between Sarah'a life during WW2, and the journalist digging up her life story in 2009. During this intricate story, she learns that she and Sarah are deeply connected, and that's where things start to become interesting... Really well-made!

Having read nothing about this film, I watched it on a whim last night and was pleasantly surprised. Not only was it a lesson in History that I wasn't fully aware of in the French deportation of Jews to Nazi concentration camps but it was a very well made film, albeit a sad one. If you like Boy in the Striped Pajamas then I recommend this.

Kristen Scott Thomas continues to prove that she can play anyone, in any time, and anywhere. Here, she plays an American journalist living in France who is writing an extended magazine piece about the French government/police's active persecution of Jews during World War II. The film is told in both the present and the past, as Thomas' character is linked, in a wonderful and poignant way, with a little Jewish girl (Sarah) and her story. It's a terrific film and quite moving in both temporal incarnations. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys contemporary French cinema.

One of those rare situations where the movie is better (in this case not only better, but far better) than the book. Thank the film gods they diminished or eliminated nearly everything about the novel that sucked.