When I realized the movie was based on a Jane Austin book I thought I should read it before seeing the movie. I didn’t get around to it and, as it turns out, the movie credits a Jane Austin novella, although in its time I doubt much difference was made between the two.

From the beginning, as they introduce the characters, you see that this is meant to be a comedy. It follows the schemes of a widow without means who is trying to marry her daughter off to a rich man while she tries to find a wealthy man for herself.

It’s a funny movie but not to everyone’s tastes (i.e., Pat didn’t like it all that much).

The movie was well done and I enjoyed it but a couple of things stuck out in my mind. First was the wishy-washy politicians who wouldn’t make a critical decision and always wanted to refer it up. Rather my view of most politicians I must say. I also felt that we should do all we can for soldiers who return home suffering from PTSD, but I think they should have the same counselling after every shift that involves such crucial decisions as the one depicted in the film.

The best quote of the movie came in one of the final scenes (from the late Alan Rickman) – “Never tell a soldier he doesn’t know the true cost of war”.

Powerful, but brutal and unrelenting! By the time the movie was nearing its conclusion I didn’t care how it turned out, I just wanted it to be over.

Saul is a member of the Sonderkommandos at Auschwitz. The Sonderkommandos were work units who were forced to aid in the disposal of bodies during the Holocaust. When Saul finds a boy, still alive, while emptying the gas chamber, the boy is turned over to the authorities and is quickly killed. Saul is determined to give the boy a proper Jewish burial. Whether or not the boy is really his son is never clear.

I knew this wasn’t going to be a comedy, but there are a lot of funny moments in the movie. Tina Fey plays the part of Kim Barker, a real-life television journalist who covered the war in Afghanistan. After the station she worked for sent most of their journalists to Iraq, Kim volunteered to go to Afghanistan to continue coverage of that war. Her short-term assignment turned into years spent in the country, mostly in Kabul.