We'd heard good things about the book, and KST can do no wrong (impressive that she knows how to say things like "load-bearing wall" in French, no?), but the film itself was a disappointment. Mélusine Mayence gives a strong performance as the young Sarah and the main strand of the plot, set in 1942, is certainly engaging, but the secondary plot featuring KST as an investigative reporter seems contrived and condescending—as if we needed a framing tale about a contemporary woman and her contemporary problems to get us involved in a film about the Holocaust. My wife thought that the storyline with Sarah's brother, the cupboard and the key was a bit grotesque as well, like one of those Grimms' fairy tales they never let you read when you're a kid.
A few scenes seem designed to help French audiences feel better about the role their grandparents might have played in these events: Apparently there were lots of Jewish kids who were sheltered by farm families, as shown in the film, but the scenes with the kindly guard at the transit camp didn't seem very plausible. All in all, I felt that "Sarah's Key'' was constantly plucking at our sleeves and reminding us that we were watching a high-minded, sensitive work of historical fiction; it's interesting that viewers who were previously unaware of the role played by the Vichy regime in the Holocaust seem to have been more impressed by this film than those who already had some background in the subject, which of course is still being debated.
By contrast, Claude Miller's "A Secret" (2007), also currently available on streaming Netflix, tells a similar story— how a desperate, impulsive act at a life-or-death moment can change the history of a family for generations—in a much subtler and more convincing way; it has a great cast (Julie Depardieu, Ludivine Sagnier, Mathieu Amalric ), and we strongly recommend it. The final scene is a real heartbreaker.
A few scenes seem designed to help French audiences feel better about the role their grandparents might have played in these events: Apparently there were lots of Jewish kids who were sheltered by farm families, as shown in the film, but the scenes with the kindly guard at the transit camp didn't seem very plausible. All in all, I felt that "Sarah's Key'' was constantly plucking at our sleeves and reminding us that we were watching a high-minded, sensitive work of historical fiction; it's interesting that viewers who were previously unaware of the role played by the Vichy regime in the Holocaust seem to have been more impressed by this film than those who already had some background in the subject, which of course is still being debated.
By contrast, Claude Miller's "A Secret" (2007), also currently available on streaming Netflix, tells a similar story— how a desperate, impulsive act at a life-or-death moment can change the history of a family for generations—in a much subtler and more convincing way; it has a great cast (Julie Depardieu, Ludivine Sagnier, Mathieu Amalric ), and we strongly recommend it. The final scene is a real heartbreaker.