Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

About memories. As sap of life. As axis of rules. As gun in a huge war for who is not end.A winter leaf. Not more that. An very old poem about meetings and words and flakes of past and strange ladders. A movie about Shoah, but, more that. Definition of cages of time and the languages of interior clocks. A good film but the final taste is so profound than the film is a form of "memento mori", picture of reality or a sea of silence in an autumn morning.A great casting is answer for all. But it is not an answer but a beginning. For the touches and words, for the force of a woman who must protect the shadows of every past, every present, for the science of Max von Sydow to makes bricks in Bergman style in every interpretation, for the art of Susan Sarandon. Astory. About the existences as icebergs.

This film was one of the absolute best acted, best directed and scripted of any I have yet watched.The film is not a tear jerker, except for the both dumb of heart and mind. It is a powerful story, that has roots in the very fabric of human history and the struggle for meaning in life.The existential struggles and scarred souls of three Nazi concentration camp survivors, meet after 35 years. Lessons are learned by all involved. The perhaps greatest lesson, is the need for the young to understand the life and circumstances their parents faced. And, ironically the inability of time to seem anything except indifferent to human suffering and existence itself. The past and its sufferings need give way to time's indiffernce. Live and love in the present. That is the crux of this fine drama.I do-not suggest this film for insensitive slobbery and obviously some here saw nothing in it. It is as if a great film was cast before them and all they saw was a boring pace and words and emotions they could never feel or associate themselves with.I have given this film a NINE. That for me is almost an impossible thing to do, if you review my reviews.Congratulations on a moving, intellectual and poignant cinema.

This film is about three Nazi death camp survivors reuniting 35 years later, arousing deep emotions and provoking old wounds.I had high hopes for "Emotional Arithmetic". The cast is completely stellar and Oscar worthy. Their performances are all excellent, but unfortunately the plot is not enough to make the a masterpiece. The topic has so much potential to make it a tear jerker, but "Emotional Arithmetic" fails to be captivating. The past is poorly explained, and the present is inadequately described. I think every subplot is not developed to enough detail to evoke inner emotions in the viewers' hearts. The only memorable scene is when Melanie gets shattered by Jakob's reaction when she hands him a gift at the dinner table.I feel disappointed by "Emotional Arithmetic". It has so much potential to grab and move viewers, but it turns out to be a rather unsatisfying bore.

I watched this film last night and its been with me on and off all day. First off, don't expect Entertainment in the purest form of the word here, this is a very adult, cerebral and slow-burning experience. Ultimately, its about pain and the memory of it and how that can affect life and relationships afterwards. To say the acting in this film is good is a serious under-statement, but Susan Sarandon is absolutely sublime, it honestly cant get much better than this.The relationship between her and Christopher Plummer is at best dubious, and when Gabriel Byrne is introduced, we are left guessing as to whats the story here.Through some very subtle changes of tone, as the story progresses, you do wonder if Von Sydow and Byrnes presence, are finally filling some need in Plummer, through jealousy or a sense of competition , which, it has to be said, he feels he's losing desperately.There's one scene in particular which shows just how sad memories can be when not shared with others and its only when it rains and the words are washed from the diary that you feel Sarandon has finally let go of the past as is symbolised by the rain making clean for the future.Von Sydow realises he's been at fault by making her suffer through remembrance and declares 'She should have lived'. Great writing, direction and SUPERB acting, all add up to a very worth-while and deeply poignant movie.