On one level, the scope of this story, about a family trying to flee an oppressive Hungary, is vast. The film does a fairly good job of hinting at the hell that certain citizens faced, and, as in Nazi Germany, the extremes people would go to, to escape, in this case to the U. S. (which at the time was still welcoming to immigrants, unlike now).
In this story, because of circumstances that weren't clear to me, the family (Natassja Kinski as Margit and Tony Goldwyn as Peter) is forced to leave behind the younger of two daughters in order to flee.
The younger daughter ("Suzy," played beautifully by Kelly Endresz Banlaki) is placed with loving foster parents and has a pleasant childhood with them, believing them to be her parents. Finally the family in the states is able to send for her.
Needless to say, Suzy must face a period of adjustment. We eventually get to Suzy's teenage years, where she is now Scarlett Johannson.
Scarlett was actually a teen, so it worked well. However, she did not have a remote sense of being someone else. She was a typical self-involved rebellious teenager. Also, there was no remote trace of an accent, none. Nor was there a trace of accent in the case of her older sister. I suppose it's possible that children could lose their accents, but it did not seem realistic to me.
The story plods on simplistically, with almost every scene fading out too soon. Suzy has no respect for her mother and since the father agreed that she could go back to Hungary when she was ready, well, she's ready. He sends her back. It's clear that teen Suzy believes she's going to find the missing piece to her identity.
What she discovers, after meeting her maternal grandmother, is the nightmare that her mother (Natassja) had to live through and why she went to the US and why Suzy was not able to join them.
Suzy comes away from this experience with a newfound respect for her mother, and returns a "changed" person who is now fully able to call her real mother "mother."
The parents, the foster parents and the grandmother do not age one day in 10 years. Not one. This makes no sense. Also, the older sister plays a horribly cruel joke on Suzy (when she's still a child), and also insults her and berates her and treats her horribly.
Considering that this family (the parents and older child) would realize and understand all the suffering they endured to be able to live the life they are now living, I found it odd that the older sister acted like an inconsiderate obnoxious brat. It was extremely upsetting.
As for Scarlett: the producers felt compelled to make her do a VO at the top of the film so that the viewers would "understand." It was absolutely unnecessary and was in fact the only VO in the film. Also, yes, we can see how beautiful Scarlett is turning out, and while I will happily watch a film with her in it, her speaking voice at this point was flat and dull and essentially emotionless. She did not give a layered performance, and I never for one second believed that this child had been born in Hungary and spent her formative years there.
As this was the true story of Éva Gárdos, who wrote and directed the film, I can appreciate that she wanted to share what had happened to her. But honestly speaking, I mostly did not find this film engaging on an emotional level, and the lack of a hint of an accent, plus zilch aging by all characters, didn't help.
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