Sarah's Key (8/10)

Knowing nothing but what one TV commercial told me was how I viewed this movie. That rarely happens. I often know all the actors, read the reviews, watched all the trailers. I wouldn't say I'm spoiling the movie as more I'm interested in it. Although there as been times I've had a movie partially ruined for me because of my research (don't watch the "Dream House" trailer). "Sarah's Key" comes from a widely successful book I knew next to nothing about. This was as fascinating as it is deadly.

The plot is almost two completely separate stories with a central character. There are flashbacks of Paris in 1942 during Nazi occupation. Thousands Jewish Parisians were locked up in a sport's stadium for days under grueling conditions (they said it was 10x worse then New Orleans' Super Dome). Sarah and her family go there but not her brother. When being taken away Sarah hides her brother in a closet and takes the key. She promises to come back and must in order to save him. Well the Nazi's aren't going to let her just go. Now flash forward to the present and a journalist played marvelously by Kristen Scott Thomas is looking into the story. There is a dark connection to her husbands family and Sarah's that you'll have to find out on your own.

The flashback scenes are fantastic and done so well it makes the present day ones seem almost empty. Thomas' acting is the saving grace. I was so unfamiliar with the movie actually that I had no idea when it would end and thought it would end any minute for at least half an hour. This was irritating and I don't think it was just me. Holocaust movies are a dime a dozen but rarely will you see a bad one. This one is quite good, great even. Just nothing that will be remembered like "Schindler's List" because they are in different leagues.

8/10
Recommendation: Remember what I said about "Winter In Wartime"? Well just look at my recommendation there and it goes just the same here.