. . . it probably would look a lot like SARAH'S KEY. Mix in a few centuries of Bad Karma corrupting Anglo-Saxon culture in 1066, betraying Saint Joan in 1431, waging the Napoleonic Wars on the heels of the Reign of Terror, being Germany's patsy two World Wars in a row, and deporting 76,000 Jews to the Auschwitz Death Camp as documented in SARAH'S KEY, and it's not hard to see why the self-styled "Avenging Angels" were allowed by Fate to massacre a bastion of French "culture" this week. What with their over-rated cooking and undeserved reputation for Romance, it may be possible to imagine how some naive young Americans such as "Julia" (Kristin Scott Thomas) can be sucked right in, for awhile. But nearly any critical thinker will reach a day of reckoning, when the Truth about the French knocks them off the bandwagon, as they realize that they've been hoodwinked. Whether it's selling warships to Mad Dog Putin, throwing Israel under the bus, or hauling Jews to Hitler, the French can be counted on to do the craven thing. There may be a few "good" people in France, just as there were a couple right-thinking Nazis, such as Oscar Schindler. But, as Julia learns, SARAH'S KEY is to get out of France.

I side with those who rate this film very highly, and find those who argue more negatively to be unconvincing. I'm glad to read in some of the other reviews that the novel upon which this film is based is quite wonderful. But please don't let that opinion become a stick with which to beat up a very good film in its own right. (I knew nothing about the novel before watching the film; I didn't find the jumps in time at all confusing—by now such editing has become commonplace and allows us to see connections that would otherwise be much more obscure.) Furthermore, the objections to the modern-story you will read in some user reviews miss the point. Of course it is "flatter" than the story of what happens to Sarah during WWII and after. How could it not be? But that is a necessary dramatic technique. The reporter becomes obsessed by a need to find out more and more—to follow Sarah's story wherever it must take her; and in doing so, she finds a way to cope with problems in her personal life, and she is recaptures a terrible chapter in history that is almost impossible to imagine. The further we get from the time WWII and the holocaust, the more "unreal" such stories are in danger of becoming: fodder for mindless comic-book action movies and alternative realities. I like Captain American, to be sure; and Inglourious Basterds is a great film in its own way, too. But the historical record does need to be kept alive, and brought home with immediacy. And yes, these things could well disappear from memory. This novel and film have found an intriguing way to tie us to the past, and to allow many many fine actors to shine. Highly recommended; but be warned: it is not an easygoing experience!

Sarah's key intertwines a story of indescribable hardships during the 1942 holocaust period, with one of a modern day journalist engrossed in writing an article about the Vel' d'Hiv. In 1942 the French government supported a Nazi-decreed raid on the Jewish population living in Paris. Many Jewish residents were rounded up and taken to Vel' d'Hiv (a disused velodrome) where they were deprived of food and drink for days and finally taken to the concentration camps. Among those held captive was a young Jewish girl called Sarah Starzynski. Before being taken along with her mother and father to the velodrome she locked her little brother Michel in a closet in hope of keeping him safe. She promises to return and let him out and that promise is a driving factor behind her story. Closely weaved with the powerful scenes of Sarah's deportation and strive to escape is the story of 50 year old Julia Jarmond. A French journalist who's task of writing an article about the velodrome leads her to shocking discoveries about her own connection to this history. Her research unveils the story of Sarah and her escape from the concentration camps. However, she later learns that the house she is to inherit is in fact the house that Sarah and her family were taken away from. This collision between the past and her own future forces Julia to ask herself some questions about her own life, her work, her difficult relationship with her family and her relationship with her unborn child. Their stories become very closely connected to the point where they are almost inseparable. Julia's heartfelt mission takes her to meet those closely connected with Sarah as a child and has a tremendous impact on those who knew her. Apart from conveying the main moral of the importance of understanding the past and how it can affect our present the movie ties in strong concepts of brutality, indifference, and responsibility. It has grim examples of the cruelty of some of the French and German officers as well as the idea that they weren't all bad with one guard actually helping Sarah and her friend escape. The movie puts much blame on the French government and the indifference of its citizens and shows shocking instances of both indifference and compassion of the French people. Although Julia's story contains some powerful moments of past and present interlocking, her family issues and her unborn child are weak plot lines comparing to that of Sarah's. Her everyday modern issues take away from the gravity of Sarah's tragic story and give the film a bit of a modern cinema cliché. Despite this the film is still very gripping with Kristin Scott Thomas putting on an astounding performance. Being 2/3rd in French it is a film you must pay attention to in fear of getting lost but it is a movie I recommend to all those interested in the holocaust and its connections to our modern world.

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...