Rhapsodie américaine

In the Drama genre An American Rhapsody is a good movie. Not much action, but a story worth to be told. An emotional story about a kid left behind unwillingly by her parents in Hungary when everything went bad over there, and then to be raised by two lovely people before going to America. It was interesting to see a younger Scarlett Johansson and an older Natassja Kinski but the main star to me was the very young Raffaella Bánsági that did an excellent job playing her character. I saw it's the only movie she appeared in and I wonder why because for a child actress she did an amazing job. The movie has a good cast, and it's mostly dominated by the women that made this story a movie that will touch his viewers emotionally. Normally not the kind of movie I would go for but I certainly don't regret watching it.

Experienced Hollywood editor of Hungarian origin Eva Gardos threw this movie together more or less about her own life for her first feature film direction. One unfortunately has to be suspicious about any such first film a director puts together about his or her own life. Few could pull that off to produce a masterpiece. The tale, surely a moving, intriguing, even fascinating one, is not told too well. Still I will recommend this film for two BIG reasons. If you're not interested in what I deem to be problems with the film, move on to the last para.

The language problem, the constant dilemmas the film-makers had to face about when to use dubbing, when not (also depending on which market you want to sell on), when a character should be speaking in American English, in English with a Hungarian accent, in Hungarian with an English accent or Hungarian, obviously must have posed a great difficulty in handling the task of story-telling, and would have made suspending disbelief a bit more difficult for the audience anyway. But English with a Slavic accent as English with a Hungarian accent really doesn't work well when you hear it. OK, for an American with no Hungarian connection it can be alright. But there were problems if you put yourself beyond this, too. Beside errors in telling the story, the Hungary showed in the movie is just not real. It's interesting that among the comments so far I have only seen a guy from Kent (the UK) point that out, even contrary to some others who found the atmosphere of the Hungarian scenes authentic. I have felt neither the political situation get across to the viewer, nor local culture being authentically presented. Altogether, the mood of the era is not captured at all, not translated to the mainly American audience that may still, of course, feel as though it would be.

So why would I still recommend the film? On the one hand Eva Gardos doesn't do justice to herself, for the story is really damn interesting. Not just because of the role history plays in it, but because you have women in the focus here and so you're guaranteed to see strong female characters. Or not exactly guaranteed, for I have seen films with women in the focus end up differently, but in 'American Rhapsody' this is something that actually works well. It's primarily one person's responsibility I believe. She is the other reason you have to check this movie out. After the film I looked up her name on IMDb, thinking it was time for some talent-spotting. 'Scarlett Johansson' – OK, I decided to remember the name. Next week one TV channel played 'Lost in Translation'. She was in it, so I decided to watch it. Just guess if I started disliking her after that… :-). I'll help you out. Whenever I walk across the Széchenyi Chain Bridge here in Budapest I think with amazement of her having walked across there in 'American Rhapsody'.

It is difficult to encompass this film in a few words. It is a compelling drama that is delicately crafted by the director and superbly acted by the entire cast. In those respects it is flawless. There are enchanting, and disturbing pictures of life in America and Hungary. The story is at once sad, and heartening. It is a film of contrasts, skillfully presented. It draws the emotions of the viewer along with it, and evokes genuine sympathies for all the characters. That is rare in any film.

A young girl is torn between her youthful memories of one world, and one set of parents, while trying to grow up in another world with her real family that she seems to barely know. She is caught emotionally between her memories of two diverse worlds. The conflicts come to a crisis when she is 16, and she decides that she must return to Hungary in order to resolve them. I was so enthralled by that premise, and the skill with which the story was crafted, that I was engrossed from start to finish. I'm not even sure if I blinked the entire time. The scenes on the Hungarian side paint a poignant picture of people trying to live under the hopelessness of the communist regime after the invasion by the Soviets in 1950.

Natassja Kinski is superb. Her role is a departure from past efforts but she, as always, delivers a sterling interpretation of her character. But Scarlet Johansson and Kelly Endresz Banlaki really steal the show. Their performances as Suzanne are understated and genuine. There are some minor plot flaws in "An American Rhapsody", but they are inconsequential compared to the superb emotional ride the story provides. Watch this one for the dramatic and irresistible acting.

Being the daughter of parents which also fled to American during the Cold War, this movie touched my heart. I watched it with my mother and two sisters. Since we all speak fluent hungarian, we did not need the subtitles which was a lot of fun, especially when we caught mistakes in the subtitles. The film brought back sad and scary memories to my mother. Tony Goldwyn did a good job speaking the language. The only criticism I have, is that it was unrealistic for the main characters to speak English as well as they did in such a short period of time. I doubt English was taught in the Hungarian schools back during that time. Also, it was not that easy starting a life in America at first. You had to work very hard and had very little, nothing was handed to you. The movie came across as though they lived comfortably quite easily and early on. Both my parents spent time in immigration camps in NY, which is were they met, they worked hard, scratched and clawed for everything they had. Not easy as it is now. Over all I liked the Film and still recommend it.

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.