In modern-day Paris, Julia Jarmond, an American journalist, finds her life becoming entwined with a young girl whose family was torn apart during the notorious Vel d'Hiv round up, which took place in 1942.
The crumbs of happiness the filmmakers find to soothe us with are that learning Sarah's story helps Julia come to terms with her own problems, a neat resolution that trivializes the story the filmmakers mean to illuminate.
I'm delighted to see that the Weinstein Company is re-releasing one of the year's most overlooked films, Sarah's Key, the moving adaptation of Tatiana De Rosnay's international best-seller. It's one of the year's best films.
Deadspin
June 23, 2013
Never quite finds the right balance between the grave consequences of its period scenes and the relative small beans of the present-day ones.
It does provide audiences with the satisfaction of seeing and hearing an important truth expressed, and that's better than making you feel good. That's making you feel something.
French director Paquet-Brenner occasionally yields to melodrama, particularly in the final act, but he is resolute about not depicting all of his countrymen as Nazi stooges, since many weren't.
Denver Post
August 05, 2011
Thomas' performance is one of brilliant restraint and believable naturalism.
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
November 28, 2011
The emphasis on the writer's relatively trivial if symbolic domestic woes (she experiences a 'miracle' pregnancy in the midst of her research into death) detracts from the power of the wartime scenes.
Isn't it a little early in the year for Harvey Weinstein to be grubbing for Oscars already?
Chicago Reader
December 13, 2011
Thomas carries the weight of the movie, and her usual sangfroid works against her; when she finally makes contact with the deported couple's grandson, the story crumples into sentimentality
