Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful Film
Review: This is a beautiful film in every prospect. This is about a girl who was seperated from her family in Hungary and after years of seperation she rejoines her family in America. Her mother has never been happier to have her daughter around neither has her father but she is as unhappy as can be she misses her home and wants to go back. When her father realizes how unhappy she is he makes her a promise that if when she is older if she still wants to go back to Hungary he will get her a ticket back there. A few years pass and lots of things happen and she begins to hate her mother for everything she has ever done. The ending is wonderful and so is the rest of the movie I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did. I would recommend this to people who are 12 or older and are mature enough to understand the plot and take it seriously because this movie is based on a true story, enjoy the movie everyone!
Rating:
Summary: Her idyllic childhood changed when she was sent to America
Review: This is the writer/director, Eva Gardos' own story. It begins with the young actress Scarlett Johansson, cast as Suzanne, standing on a bridge in Budapest. The year is 1965. "I was 15 and my life was already falling apart," she says, "so I came back to Hungary where it all began." What follows is an extended flashback to 1950. A married couple, Margit and Peter, played by Natassja Kinski and Tony Goldwyn, have to escape from Hungary. They have two young daughters and can only take the older one who is five years old. They have to leave the baby behind because it would be too dangerous if the baby cried. We see their escape and feel their tension -- bribing guards, running across a field, traveling in a train dressed as peasants. We see their love for their baby and the distress when they find out that their plans for having her smuggled out to join them in Vienna are thwarted. To save the baby, the Grandmother, played by Agnes Banafalvy, makes arrangements to have the baby raised by a childless peasant couple, Teri and Jeno, played by Zsuzsa Czinkoczi and Balazs Galko. They come to love the little girl as their own and she grows up loving them as well. In the meantime, the Margit and Peter and their older daughter arrive in America. They never stop trying to get their younger daughter out by writing letters to public officials. Finally, after six years, they obtain permission to bring their little girl to America.What follows is perhaps the strongest part of the film as the child who knows only the peasant family as her own and who doesn't speak a word of English, is suddenly taken from her idyllic childhood and thrust into a life in a small Los Angeles suburb. The young actress who plays the 6-year old Suzanne, Kelly Endresz-Banlaki is wonderful. I really felt the confusion and upset of the young child who misses her homeland and tries her best to adapt to her new life. These scenes are touching and mixed with comedy and pathos and I couldn't keep my tears from flowing. The scene suddenly shifts to nine years later. Suzanne is now a rebellious teenager in constant conflict with her mother. When she picks up a rifle and tries to shoot her way out of her locked bedroom, it is obvious she is in crisis. At her pleas, the family allow her to go back to visit Hungary. I enjoyed the film tremendously, felt emotion for each of the characters - the parents, the grandmother, the peasants who loved her, and even the older sister with her own form of sibling rivalry. Mostly though, I felt for the little six-year-old girl who had to adapt to a whole new way of life. The characters spoke both Hungarian and English, which added an authentic feel and the cinematography clearly depicted the contrasts between Los Angeles and Hungary. Throughout, there was also the feeling of the oppressive totalitarian system, which had divided the family. The ending was happy, although a little contrived, but it seemed appropriate. I can't think of any other way it could have ended. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: True Soviet-Hungary and the Hungarian experience in America
Review: This movie truly brings the frightening stories my grandmother used to tell to life. She and her husband and 9 children left for America in 1949. This after the Soviets confiscated their farm and business and imprisoned her husband. He was maltreated and nearly starved. He was eventually released and they moved to Dayton,OH and became successful, proud Americans. She left two brothers behind. She has had to deal with the same rebellion in her children over the years. Thank God Hungary is free at last.
Rating: 
Summary: true story
Review: With all of the big budget "roller-coaster" entertainment in the theatres these days An Ameriacn Rhapsody stands out as a compelling true story of the sacrifices people are willing to make to find freedom in America. Good performances abound but the story is the thing here. Locations in Hungary and all from a movie with a budget of less than 4 million dollars!! A definite "go see".
| 
