Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

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.

Al Rodbell Many years ago I watched the film with the cryptic name, "Mr. Klein," that I have often referred to over the years. That film about a Parisian who was enjoying life in spite of the unpleasantness of the Vichy government of a Nazi occupied country. Certainly, he was morally disturbed by the treatment of Jews, but it didn't really concern him----that is until he was mistaken for another man with his exact name-who was a Jew.Last night we saw "Sarah's Key" which was another dramatization of the same event that is now referred to as "Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv" a roundup of over 13,000 Jewish citizens of Paris that began on July 17, 1942 and ended in suicide or murder at the concentration camps of the Nazi genocide machine. What made this one different, is that it was carried out by the French authorities.This review of the film is also a commentary of how films can provide a deeper way of understanding events, whether fictional or documentaries of past times that convey eternal truths. This is not wallowing in suffering, but experiencing it to be reminded of its reality, understanding of the dynamics that made it possible, and arm future generations with a vocabulary to prevent such calamities.One of the central questions "Sarah's Key" raises is why those educated Jews who had heard rumors of the death camps and of the impending crackdown on their co-religionists (they were already wearing the yellow stars on their clothing) did not try to escape. While "Sarah's Key" depicts the conversations, the rationalizations, the disbelief that such inhumanity could actually occur in a civilized world, only "Mr. Klein" could actually get a viewer inside such people at that moment of terrifying epiphany, the realization that the civilized world that they had imagined was only an illusion.The events of the Holocaust are now almost 70 years ago, and the characters in "Sarah's Key" question the value of stirring the pot of those terrible years where those who were complicit have either willfully rationalized their action, or mostly, inaction. What is the benefit of their descendants knowing the truth-a question masterfully explored in a recent documentary, "The Flat." Both that film and Sarah's Key, one fictional the other real, covers what is now three generation from those who could not believe in the extent of "man's inhumanity to man" to those who lived it, to our current older adults, who still need to be reminded that functioning society is an ephemeral thing that takes constant tending to preserve.What is the value of these dramatization of the Holocaust, from the earliest of the genre, "The Diary of a Young Girl." If the effect is to think that the atrocities depicted in these films was an innate defect of the Germans or its collaborators at that moment of time, that we are better than that, it will be the wrong message. To take any comfort in such a thought is sewing the seeds of just such horror in a future time and place, where like those who perpetrated that roundup of Jews, it may be we who will be certain are doing unpleasant work that has to be done.

owens-515-476829 A film of past and present, Sarah's key recounts the struggles and heartache faced by two women as they deal with great loss in their lives and attempt to run from the truth in an effort to deal with their pain. Living with guilt and dealing with the loss and the pain endured along the way become the central theme of this film. We watch as each woman finds ways to cope with their pain but also how running from the truth behind that pain will impact and change the course of their lives forever. As French police begin to roundup Jewish families in 1942 for deportation we learn about a young girl named Sarah, (Melusine Mayance (child) and Charlotte Poutrel (adult), and how the 1942 Roundup, as it is known today, would forever change her life. We are seamlessly transitioned between past and present throughout the film as a present day investigation by an American journalist named Julia (Kristen Scott Thomas), working on a anniversary piece about the incident, uncovers the pain of the life of a forgotten girl named Sarah. In an attempt to save her younger brother's life on that fateful day in 1942, Sarah locked him in a closet, only to leave him behind, unknowing to anyone as she and her parents are taken away by the French police. We watch Sarah's heart break as she makes many unsuccessful attempts to send help to free her brother. Eventually escaping from a concentration camp, she is taken in by Jules (Neils Arestrup) and Genevieve (Dominique Frot) Dufaure, who help her return home only to find her brothers rotting corpse. We watch as her new family struggles to help her cope with the guilt of his death and then confront a loss of their own when she decides to leave in pursuit of a life of her own. Even a husband and son could not heal the pain of her childhood loss and she eventually takes her own life. As a grown man, her son knows no truth about his mother's life and until his father confirms the facts, he is resistant to Julia's findings as she attempts to find closure on Sarah's life. In present day we watch as Julia becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Sarah and her family and learn that the childhood apartment of her husband, that they are currently renovating, was in fact the same home that Sarah was torn from so many years before. After learning many details from her father-in-law about the day Sarah returned home to find her brother we also learn of Julia's own personal loss. After discovering that she is pregnant, we learn of previous lost pregnancies and the toll it took on her and her family. Deciding against termination of the pregnancy, at the suggestion of her husband, we begin to see the struggles in their relationship and the truth they have been running from as well. The film Message In A Bottle shares a similar theme as the central concern also seems to revolve around dealing with loss, feeling of guilt to be alive, and concealing pain. Interestingly the films also share a similar plot in that a journalist seeks to uncover a story behind intriguing information about an unknown individual. Suggestive of the theme the lighting for this film had an overall darkness to it. The dim but natural lighting effects contributed greatly to the drama and emotions throughout the film. Additionally, the film was able to grab the viewer's attention by use of close up shots throughout the film. This particular technique focused the attention on the emotions of the actor thus drawing the viewer into the scenes providing the greatest dramatic significance in relation to the characters dealing with their losses. As the theme suggest, when we experience such tragic events in our lives it can seem easier to run from the pain than to face it head on. Living as though the events and losses never took place is in a sense hiding from the truth. Perhaps it is much easier to run from the pain than deal with the sadness and possible guilt of surviving the storm that those around us failed to do.

B Onsberg It makes one wonder how public officials - and how (most) policemen are like dogs - just following their masters commands/orders - right or wrong, they don't care.....People who believe in the systems,are willing o commit murder, just so they can polish their little grey heads.A great movie, with a not very happy ending, and definitely not frances finest hour.In Denmark (im a dane) ordinary people delayed and prevented the Gestapo and their hired hands -the danish police - from taking our Jewish neighbours, instead we hide them, and smugled the to Sweden.