Review of Sarah's Key (2010) by Sarah P — 09 Sep 2012

This film held my interest and was very good in places. However, I found the script a little confusing at times. Not sure who the characters were, especially Julia's husband's family. Found the Julia and her husband subplot too loaded for the sparse treatment it received.

This could be due to editing of the flashbacks which left the script a little too sparse. Nevertheless, I was riveted until the scene where Julia meets Sarah's son. From that scene on the script had some implausible moments perhaps because the emotional momentum was picking up too much speed.

I found it hard to accept Julia's insensitive insistence that Sarah's son listen to her story. It just didn't seem real. Later, the scene with the father recounting his story of Sarah, also seemed unreal.

It came too easily since we were told by his daughter in an earlier scene that his health couldn't take remembering his wife. He didn't seem that ill to me. And the final implausible scene was the last one.

With the completely changed son meeting with Julia as if they were old friends. Julia's daughter was much too pretty (she looked like a model) and the final moment with Julia and Sarah's son watching her little girl at the window just rang emotionally untrue.

Even so, I liked this film. Not sure I would highy recommend it but I didn't feel it was a waste of time.