SARAH’S KEY – The Review

This Summer the events of World War II have played a major role in the fantasy films CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER  and X-MEN: FIRST CLASS.  Once again with the release of SARAH’S KEY we return to the 1940’s, but this time in a thought provoking drama. As in the recent ARMY OF CRIME we witness the occupation of Paris. It began with the round up of French Jewish citizens and then focused on several resistance fighters. Key uses that round up-the Vel’ d’Hiv- as it’s second timeline while flashing ahead to the modern day. Both films shine a light on a dark chapter in France’s recent past.

SARAH’S KEY begins in that older timeline-1943- as young Sarah ( Melusine Mayance ) plays with her younger brother in the bedroom of their Paris apartment. The quiet morning is shattered by the police pounding on the front door. The family-and many neighbors- is soon lead away on buses. The film then flashes forward to the present day as Julia ( Kristin Scott Thomas ) looks in on the workers remodeling the old apartment that has been in her husband’s family for many decades. The British born Julia returns to her job as a journalist at an international news magazine. She pushes for an article on the anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv and with the help of a younger staffer-who has little knowledge of the events-she begins her research. She learns that her husband’s family took over Sarah’s family apartment after they were taken away. Returning to the past we see the family being held at a bicycling sports area until they are transferred . Eventually they will be shipped off to German concentration camps. Battling illness and hunger, Sarah is determined to escape. Modern day Julia becomes a history detective as she tries to trace the story and find out what happened to that brave little girl.

SARAH’S KEY for most of it’s running time tells two stories. Unfortunately the modern day plotline of Julia’s marriage problems and family clashes seems fairly trivial compared to the life and death struggle in 1942. The brutal scenes at the sports arena ( as a young modern day staffer remarks that it was many times worse than the New Orleans Superdome after Katrina ) are very powerful. What stuns the 2011 characters is that these atrocities were inflicted on French citizens by French authorities before the German forces took over. Sarah’s journey is compelling while Julia’s arguments with her husband are not. Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner is able to keep the tension going in those harrowing scenes of the past and gets a very strong performance from Mayance as the strong -willed young heroine. Thomas makes Julia a passionate, intelligent seeker of truth. This is the second French language film I’ve seen her act in and I was impressed how she effortlessly goes from her native tongue to fluent French. Another English-speaking actor, Aidan Quinn, shows up fairly late in the film as Julia interviews him during her research. I almost wish the film concentrated more on Sarah’s story, but the flash forwards to modern times doesn’t diminish it’s power. SARAH’S KEY is a journalistic detective story that  reveals a country’s shame while celebrating the  undefeated spirit of one of it’s youngest heroines.

Overall Rating: Three Out of Five Stars