You won't be disappointed!

Best movie ever!

What begins as a feel-good-human-interest story turns into a mystery, then a tragedy, and ultimately an outrage.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

As a Canadian, I generally steer clear of Canadian-made movies, but this is an exception that I'm glad I made. What a pleasure to watch two old veterans like Plummer and Von Sydow square off. Even in spite of the lukewarm reviews (usually my cue to bail a movie before it's done) I was able to finish this movie in relative comfort. (Most Canuck efforts make me very uncomfortable and embarrassed for all parties involved.) I cannot help but observe that reviewer "Huggo" misused the word "interred" in his review. To "inter" someone is to bury that person. The past tense of "inter" is "interred". I'm sure "Huggo" meant "interned".

I liked this movie a lot, however, as in some previous remarks, I feel that they all came up short on where they wanted to go. I agree that more of the past should have been developed, and tied to the characters in the present. For me, it was a bit confusing that it seemed like such a modern time, and I just didn't believe that they had survived the Holocaust. I felt they should have shown more hauntings from the past, and perhaps a bit more clinging to each other, after having survived in the emotional shipwreck of Drancy. I think, perhaps more of their message could have been brought out if they had just spent more time in the scenes from the past. After seeing this movie, I did some research on Drancy and was shocked to learn it was the French, with the approval of the Nazi's, who did this. There should have been more history lessons, I feel, so we could see the larger picture. Anyway, I loved Max von Sydow's portrayal of Jakob, and I liked Susan Sarandon's suffering, but I just felt it seemed to be disconnected from what happened in the past. I was expecting a multi hankie movie, and only shed an occasional tear. All the actors are really good, and this is well worth the money to rent or own, and to open discussions about the atrocities of WWII and the Nazi regime.

With the all of the big names in this film I was expecting a real experience. I could not have been more wrong. I wanted to take the DVD out after 10 minutes but my 18 year old son said we should give it a chance. We watched through to the end because none of us could summon enough energy to stand up and walk to the TV. Not only was the pace too slow for words but the acting (except for Max von Sydow) was excruciatingly bad. The flashbacks did not do enough to show the supposed life long ties between the characters. It was like watching six characters with no relationship to each other wandering around the set gnashing their teeth and wringing their hands. The symbolism was so in-your- face that it might as well have had flashing captions saying "pay attention to this-it is symbolic!" A most disappointing movie. At least the scenery was nice to watch.

I watched this film last night and its been with me on and off all day. First off, don't expect Entertainment in the purest form of the word here, this is a very adult, cerebral and slow-burning experience. Ultimately, its about pain and the memory of it and how that can affect life and relationships afterwards. To say the acting in this film is good is a serious under-statement, but Susan Sarandon is absolutely sublime, it honestly cant get much better than this.The relationship between her and Christopher Plummer is at best dubious, and when Gabriel Byrne is introduced, we are left guessing as to whats the story here.Through some very subtle changes of tone, as the story progresses, you do wonder if Von Sydow and Byrnes presence, are finally filling some need in Plummer, through jealousy or a sense of competition , which, it has to be said, he feels he's losing desperately.There's one scene in particular which shows just how sad memories can be when not shared with others and its only when it rains and the words are washed from the diary that you feel Sarandon has finally let go of the past as is symbolised by the rain making clean for the future.Von Sydow realises he's been at fault by making her suffer through remembrance and declares 'She should have lived'. Great writing, direction and SUPERB acting, all add up to a very worth-while and deeply poignant movie.