Greenbelters Review 'Sarah's Key'

Welcome Patch's Tugwell Theatre Group, where local movie buffs share their thoughts about films at the Old Greenbelt Theatre. With four pops being the best rating a movie can grab, find out how popcorn-worthy your neighbors deem this week's show. 

All the movie reviewers and I went together to watch “Sarah’s Key,” afterward we hung out at the New Deal Cafe discussing the movie. I should tell you all three of your movie reviewers have been tagged with nicknames by their Tugwell associates. I'm sorry they won't speak to me again if I tell you what they are. But one of these days they I might get them to go public with them. So stay tuned.

And see the movie while you can, currently listed as playing through Tuesday, Aug. 30.

Now, without further adieu, the reviews:

ANNA SOCRATES
3  ½ : ☼☼☼ + ½

Sarah’s story is the most compelling, largely because of the extraordinary child actress Mélusine Mayance. The cinematography is evocative, capturing the hellish claustrophobia of the Vel d’Hiv and contrasting it to the escape of two little girls, who run free through a golden wheat field and then float peacefully in a brown lake, their arms and legs outstretched, like two human yellow stars.

KONRAD HERLING
4 pops: ☼☼☼☼

The film also serves as an opportunity to reaffirm within ourselves the recognition that what we have in common with each other is much greater than that which divides us—a truism, which when put into practice, strengthens our community, both small and large.

 EMMETT JORDAN
(A solid) 3 pops: ☼☼☼

The past is with us and is shaping the present and future, whether we are aware of it or not. I think the author and filmmaker were trying to explore issues related to shame and denial... The acting and production values are strong.  I was impressed by the cinematography.

Read full reviews below.

ANNA SOCRATES

When Primo Levi, the Italian Jewish writer, died in 1987 in a fall, Elie Wiesel noted that Levi “died at Auschwitz forty years earlier.” Remember Wiesel’s observation about memory and guilt when watching “Sarah’s Key.” Sarah Starzinski’s story—the mystery within a larger narrative—centers on her family’s fate during the July 1942 Vel d’Hiv roundup in Paris.

The film’s framing storyline of a contemporary journalist, Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas), researching the Vel d’Hiv for a glossy magazine, provides historical context for the roundup. An event orchestrated by the French authorities, collaborating with their Nazi occupiers, it targeted foreign Jews.

The larger narrative self-consciously recalls current events more familiar to us—anti-immigrant sentiment and the New Orleans Superdome during Katrina—though Julia describes the conditions in the Vel d’Hiv velodrome as “a million times worse” than the Superdome.

Though the core story is riveting, Julia’s private concerns—an unexpected pregnancy, a crumbling marriage and a home renovation project—don’t resonate emotionally, despite Kristin Scott Thomas’s bravura performance.

Sarah’s story is the most compelling, largely because of the extraordinary child actress Mélusine Mayance. The cinematography is evocative, capturing the hellish claustrophobia of the Vel d’Hiv and contrasting it to the escape of two little girls, who run free through a golden wheat field and then float peacefully in a brown lake, their arms and legs outstretched, like two human yellow stars.

Sarah’s story deserves a 4, Julia’s a 3, so this film rates 3.5 pops. But, trust me, you won’t want to eat any popcorn during the movie.

KONRAD HERLING

"Sarah's Key" was a gripping, emotional experience for me.  It was a painful piece of history that I was not as familiar with as I should have been — the French non-resistance to the Nazis in World War II. 

Through the eyes of 10-year old Sarah, you move through some harrowing scenes of her life and the lives of millions of others persecuted and killed for their religious faith, political philosophy or economic beliefs. Sarah's approach to life as a young person is a key to providing a way out of this horror, and her physical key is a symbol of attempts made by many brave people to rescue those imprisoned and killed from such madness.  

While some may feel disappointed in how Sarah ultimately deals with her past, it is for me quite understandable. Viewers of the film must turn the key to open our minds to better understand why people address issues as they do.

The film also serves as an opportunity to reaffirm within ourselves the recognition that what we have in common with each other is much greater than that which divides us—a truism, which when put into practice, strengthens our community, both small and large.

EMMETT JORDAN

This film begins with a tragic event in 1942 France during World War II when some 13,152 victims were detained in the Vel d’Hiv velodrome for several days, before being deported to the Drancy transit camp and Auschwitz. Eventually almost all of them ended up in Auschwitz.

In 1995, then French President Jacques Chirac acknowledged the incident as one of the "darkest" hours in French history.

“Sarah’s Key” is a story that begins there, revealed through the eyes of Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas), a present day American journalist. When Jarmond discovers the home she is renovating in Paris, once belonged to Sarah’s family and was the site of a related tragedy, she becomes fixated on uncovering the whole story.

The film moves back and forth, between present and past, observing the actions of the journalist and of Sarah. The “breadcrumbs” of evidence (people, photos, diaries, and other objects) discovered by the journalist are used to move the plot along (leading from France, to Brooklyn, to Italy and back).

As I left the theater, I wondered if the shifts in perspective provided the audience with even more insight into Sarah’s story than what Jarmond uncovered.

The past is with us and is shaping the present and future, whether we are aware of it or not. I think the author and filmmaker were trying to explore issues related to shame and denial, and how actions related
to those emotions continue to shape the lives of people long after the events that birth them are over.

Although the film contained some graphic and upsetting scenes, it may be suitable for an 11 or 12-year old, if they are interested in learning something about the Holocaust. The acting and production values are strong. I was impressed by the cinematography: in particular, the warm and lush canvas depicting the 1940s French countryside, as Sarah and her friend escape from detention camp.

I rate "Sarah’s Key" a solid 3 stars.