Sarah’s Key Blu-ray review

            Adapted from Tatiana de Rosnay’s bestselling novel, Sarah’s Key unfolds with revelations that will keep you hooked to the story. They were somehow more absorbing on the page, though this is often the case. Filmmaker Gilles Paquet-Brenner manages to weave the storyline of discovery together in a way that makes passages of time seem irrelevant. The emotions tie the gaps in time together in an understated screenplay which allows the actors to tell some of the story with simply their expressions.

            When an American journalist is asked to cover the anniversary of France’s notorious 1942 Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup of Jews during World War II, she makes an awful discovery about her family and the apartment she is about to move into with her husband in Paris. Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas) reacts differently than her husband Bertrand (Frédéric Pierrot) when the truth about the apartment is discovered, causing Julia to make a difficult decision.

            The secrets that Julia discovers lead her to find out a great deal about a young French girl named Sarah (Mélusine Mayance). Sarah’s journey gives Julia the strength to make the decision she needs to, once her need to find the truth has been completely satiated. The Blu-ray of this magnificently cathartic film includes a making of featurette.