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.

. . . 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.

The narration alternates between scenes from the past and from the present, and one can't say this choice turned out to be quite pertinent because if/while the passages revolving around Sarah are relatively interesting, especially the beginning and the rafle du Vel d'Hiv in fact, Kristin Scott Thomas' investigation isn't at all, which induces an extremely bad dynamic because every scene somewhat interesting is followed by a rather boring one.Anyway, the scenario as a whole isn't refined at all and a clear superficiality emerges from the movie, which doesn't convince at all. Even the actors' performances are bland, unimpressive, like the story. Elle s'appelait Sarah won't go down in the records, especially since the holocaust has been the subject of other better productions.

The movie fairly true to the book in that the telling of the story was done with flash-backs and flash-forwards and things pretty well followed the same plot. However, where the book was a compelling read, the movie was far less so.I hate to be picky, but I have to say that the single most frustrating thing about the movie was the very poor quality of the subtitles. Since this movie starred an Anglo actress (Kristin Scott Thomas) and some of the dialogue was in English, the subtitles should have been decent ... unfortunately no.Here are a few examples."That's what I said yesterday al Normally he should be." (Huh? al? and why is normally capitalized? and exactly what the hell are you trying to say?)."You never reacts, Julia. I have three ties left a message" I think what is meant here is, "You never answer, Julia. I have left three messages."And another, "Bertrand I have spoken. He said you write an article about ..." How about, "Bertrand and I have spoken. He said you are writing (or you wrote) and article about ..."It was very distracting having to read these dreadful translations and it took a lot away from the movie. Surely, they could have asked Kristin Scott Thomas - or anyone else with basic English skills - to give them a once over and make them readable. It's mind-blowing how awful they were (and the examples I gave were all from about one five- minute stretch in the movie ... there are dozens more just like them).