An American Rhapsody

A true story: While her parents and older sister flee Hungary a young girl is unfortunately left behind with her grand-mother who then ends up in prison. The young girl is adopted by a childless couple who adoringly bring her up until she is 5 or 6, at which point her grandmother takes her back to her real parents in the USA. The young child is very brave, but also confused, and never forgets her adopted parents. This story leaves you feeling desperate for all those involved. The scenes of the girl in her early years with her adopted parents are very powerful and poignant. They are so genuine and sincere in their love for the child and they hope she will never have to leave them, but deep down they know that some day it will happen, and it happens when they are least expecting it. I can't imagine the pain those two people went through, as well as the child, and yet there is more to come. I spent the whole film fighting back the tears, I was completely absorbed by the depth of feeling. Some have said this film was flawed in some aspects but I'm no film critic and I have to say that I was so involved with the story and first class acting that if it was flawed I didn't notice. It is slow-paced but justly so. I was happy with the ending and felt it resolved nicely.

A note about the acting which was superb throughout. I'm a big fan of Tony Goldwyn who is perfect in these roles. The young Suzanne was delightful and incredibly genuine as were the adopted parents that were so authentic. The teenage Suzanne was also very naturally interpreted and believable. All in all, a fine film.

I saw "American Rhapsody," last night; it's the first film by a 50-ish Hungarian-born female filmmaker. It's features an amazing, personal, story of the early Cold War-era immigration to America of a Hungarian family, and it was really incredibly done. We love Scarlett Johansson ("Ghost World"), who plays the 15-year-old, but the girl who plays the lead character at age 6 is one of the most loveable child actresses ever, Nastassia Kinski as the mother is great, Tony Goldwyn, as the dad, is good, the pair who play the Hungarian rural couple (especially the man) are fantastic. Hungary and Budapest too play a key role. The movie will sicken you, somewhat, about the America-in-the-early-60s mentality (sicken you because you know how much a part of all of us it is). As one reviewer said, this is no State Department-backed immigration story. And it will make you fall in love with the Hungarian countryside. It's a terrific movie-going experience. I cried several times throughout.

Because of how little marketing and buzz the movie has generated, I fear it will come and go in a flash; that's why I issue this appeal.

By the way, don't go expecting great filmmaking techniques and perfect direction; it's her first movie and mistakes were made. But the experience, if you go in the right frame of mind, is great. It's in English.

The film was entertaining and touching, but what I liked most about it was its faithful recreation of the 1950s. Having grown up in that period, I don't think I've ever seen such a faithful recreation of that era on screen. I kept looking at the screen and sayin, "Oh my God, I remember that."

We in the United States do not realize how spoiled we are with material things. I am 70 yrs old and remember the lst 10 years of my life, raised by poor farmer grandparents in the depression, having nothing.

Kids do not want to hear nor believe how spoiled they are. They want every new electronic gadget that comes unto the market whether they can afford it or not.They can't afford to fix their car, pay their bills, but they must buy a cell phone, a DVD, cable TV, go to the latest movie at the theater, go out to eat etc

This is a sad movie, but a great one. It shows the comparison between life in Hungary in the mid part of the 20th century compared to the same couple getting to the United States. I won't go into the plot. The little 5 yr old actress who starred in this movie was sensational.

We do not appreciate what we have in the U.S. either. We do not realize how material gadgets do not bring the happiness we thought they would. Please rent this movie...

I enjoyed this movie more than the author of the highlighted review. I found the separations of family (real or surrogate) which take place several times in the movie very emotionally powerful.

I assume the director's family did move to Los Angeles - in any event it does provide the greatest disparity with the rural Hungary for the young girl. As an Easterner, I kept wondering if they had moved to the New England countryside - or to any older rural area or city in much of the rest of the country - whether the differences for the young girl would have seemed so stark.

I disagree with the highlighted review that suburban America of the 1950s was shown as cold - to the contrary the film shows neighbors welcoming the new family (even if, as I think quite realistic, they don't pay too much attention to the country they're from), friends gathering for barbeques, strangers returning little lost girls to their homes, children from different countries easily making friends. I thought America was shown as a pretty warm friendly place.

One problem I did have was that instead of finding the adolescent girl "typical" or acting as a result of her past, I thought she was a horrid brat - sullen, routinely refusing to speak when spoken to, flagrantly disobedient in leaving through windows too stay out through the night, drinking through the night with older boys, etc.

I didn't sense that this WAS due to the long ago difficulty of adjustment, but was instead this girl's spoiled nature, her willfulness, her lack of obedience. (Nor do I think of it as a consequence of living in America). I was therefore completely sympathetic with Kinski's despair - only by Goldwyn's slowness to anger over her wretched behavior. I kept wondering why the family wasn't physically disciplining the child and treating the adolescent's "I hate you" statements" with the contempt they deserved.

I also disliked the withholding of information about the particular motivation for Kinski to leave Hungary for later dramatic effect. Even if the event is true, it was something that could have happened anywhere in the world - and therefore not particularly a reason to leave one country rather than another. Moreover, there was suficient reason for the family to wish to leave Hungary in any event.

Nastassia Kinski and Tony Goldwyn were wonderful - as was everyone - particularly the surrogate mother, the grandmother and the child at the heart of the movie.

This is a moving film - I do wish it had received more attention. It's well worth your time and rental fee.