Review of Sarah's Key (2010) by Jillian L — 15 Dec 2012

I loved this. First off, it was an extremely interesting topic. I didn't even know that this happened in France. If you don't know, like I didn't, the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup is when the French authorities "arrested" French Jews and deported them to Germany and Poland to the concentration camps.

Families were completely torn apart. This movie intertwines the world of 1942 and 2009 extremely well, it's almost seamless. What's also great is that each of the two storylines were equally interesting, neither had dominance over the other.

The '42 storyline was absolutely heartbreaking. I also appreciated how realistic it was. I don't want to ruin too much, so I'll stop there. Then, in the '09 story, it was so fascinating watching her retrace the story, as well as dealing with her own problems as well.

Kristen Scott Thomas is fantastic as Julia. I loved her performance, especially the moments where she slipped effortlessly from French to English and back again. As for the movie overall, the cinematography is beautiful.

I will say though, there were some minor plot points that were a little confusing in regards to passage of time. Also, 3/4 of the movie is in French, so if subtitles bother you, you're out of luck.

I wasn't bothered by them at all. However, these minor details do not detract from how great of a movie this is.