Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

SnoopyStyle Hannah Stern (Kirsten Dunst) is a modern teen without much care for her Jewish ancestry. She's not that interested in the family Passover seder. Her aunt Eva (Louise Fletcher) knows that she could never understand. She goes back in time to 1941 Poland. She wakes up as Chaya who has been ill. She had traveled to attend her uncle's wedding. Her cousin Rivkah (Brittany Murphy) has been taking care of her. On the wedding day, the Nazis arrive to take everybody away. They struggle and work to build the prison camp. Ultimately Chaya takes Rivkah's place to the gas chamber. She wakes up to understand that Rivkah is her aunt Eva.The Holocaust has been done in many ways. I certainly understand the sincerity of this attempt. It's trying to connect young people with the past. I don't think this is done with well enough. Kirsten Dunst is a solid young actress but she doesn't have enough innocence. She should be shocked and bewildered. Also there is nothing new in the concentration camp. This is not a bad attempt. The idea has potential. Louise Fletcher is great but this doesn't quite make it.

Honors English Thorpe/West (Second Hour's Review) "The Devil's Arithmetic" is heart-racing, historical fiction, stomach churning, and completely sorrowful movie. The movie, released in 1999, stars Kirsten Dunst as Hannah. Who is portrayed as a modern, city-girl who doesn't want to learn about her cultural history until she is forced. Director Donna Deitch does a phenomenal job exploring the plot in an emotional way. Hannah's experience starts by being taken from her Aunt Eva's, played by Louise Fletcher, Seder dinner and transferred back to the beginning of the Holocaust. Along the way she meets Rivkah, played by Brittany Murphy, and many others that help her get back home. For historical fiction, the "Devil's Arithmetic" was wonderful! I would give this film 4 out of 5 stars. I thought that the "Devil's Arithmetic" portrayed the Holocaust very well and very emotionally. The actors chosen for the film did a phenomenal job portraying the characters. The setting was realistic and very detailed. This movie is great at teaching young kids that family and remembering history and your culture is important. I believe that teens and young adults will be able to relate to Hannah's character and her journey. (6th Hour's Review) The holocaust was dreadful, filled with pain and anguish. Jane Yolen is a Jewish author that brought us a thrilling yet sad story, The Devil's Arithmetic, of an ordinary girl remembering the past. Since many of us are way too lazy to sit down and read a book the director took the liberty of making a movie of this fascinating novel.Directed by Donna Deitch, this 1999 filn stars Kirsten Dunst as Hannah Stern, Brittany Murphy as Rivkah, and Louise Fletcher as Aunt Eva. The documentary-like drama follows Hannah Stern, an American teenager who would much rather hang out with her friends then go to her family's Seder dinner, during Passover. She reluctantly comes home late and the family goes to their Aunt Eva's for the celebration. Hannah participates, but is very hesitant to be included in the family's customs. After the traditional dinner and wine drinking, she is chosen to open the door for the prophet Elijah and is transported into another world where she relives the Holocaust as a young Jewish girl in Poland. It is at this time her cousin Rivkah is introduced into the plot and the two experience the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp together. This film was exceptional on many levels. The casting was fantastic! Kristen Dunst and Brittany Murphy really portrayed the characters well. Giving this movie a solid 8 stars, I would recommend that you see it.

Shalotka Believe or not, after my first visit to Auschwitz museum at the age of 14 I spent some time killing my awful thoughts with a fantasy about how great it would be to travel in time and save at least one person. I was a little more than surprised when I found out that someone actually dared to make a fantasy movie about a death camp with definitely teenage impact and somehow escaped ending up with it being stupid or offensive.This movie is a good introduction for the young ones into history and more serious movies on the subject. The best thing to do was to give contemporary teenagers (especially the more ignorant ones) a character to identify with - a cute, trendy, careless girl. As Hannah experiences the painful history through an episode from her aunt's life, we understand that it is not so easy to understand what happened unless you have really been there or have enough empathy. Indeed, this movie teaches a lot about empathy, respect and sacrifice. (And that the USA is the Promised Land and the best place to live for all the Jews and other innocent, brave, freedom-loving people. Really, they've seriously overdone that bit).The incomplete historical background is the major drawback. All that is seen is the life of a happy Jewish rural town and the transport to the death camp executed by an extremely stereotypical almost cartoon-like "bad Nazi". Nothing at all about the reasons and course of war, different nations and the whole variety of people's attitudes, behavior and decisions. I guess it would make the movie too long and complex for short attention span audiences. Wink.Simplified as it was, this movie had some charming elements. Cute Kirsten Dunst and Brittany Murphy, the references to the Wizard of Oz and even a little humor, which wasn't dark but optimistic (for some reason the dialogue about cheeseburgers totally won my heart).The whole time-travel plot worked out fine: Hannah had learned her lesson about the painful past of her family and other Jews as well as about the good and strength that was in her, but still aunt Eva didn't believe that her spoiled rebellious niece and the heroic friend from the camp were the same person, which puts our feet back on the ground.The message is understandable and deep: we cannot change the past, but we can learn from it.

whpratt1 This was a very heartbreaking story of human beings, Children of God, being tortured on a daily basis by people without any souls and heartless beasts, called Nazi's. It is easy for the Nazi soldiers to say," Hitler told me to do it," but deep down in their own hearts they all knew it was wrong to treat any race or religion in this fashion. Kirsten Dunst, (Hannah Stern), "Elizabethtown",'05 played the role of a Jewish gal who had a mind of her own and wound up in a concentration camp in Poland and was placed in a camp for women only. Unfortunately, there is a baby born in this horrible place and the women did everything in the world to save the child's life. There is a scene which really shows how the Nazi's killed innocent beaten down human souls. A film you must tell the younger generation about and NEVER FORGET and never let anyone tell you it NEVER HAPPENED ! It sure DID !