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Drama: Three generations of Hungarian men contend with anti-Semitism, politics and political upheaval, and the women in their lives over a span of nearly a century.

PLOT:
It's the late 19th century and Emmanuelle Sonnenschein (DAVID DE KEYSER) is a Hungarian Jew who's built a family fortune from a passed-down recipe for an elixir known as "A Taste of Sunshine." With the help of his wife, Rose (MIRIAM MARGOLYES), he's also raised his two sons, Ignatz (RALPH FIENNES) and Gustave (JAMES FRAIN), and their cousin, Valerie (JENNIFER EHLE), to be fine young people. Thus, Emmanuelle's pride is hurt when neither of his sons wishes to continue the family business.

Things become even more contentious when Gustave, a doctor in training, announces that he knows of the love between Ignatz, an aspiring lawyer, and Valerie, a budding photographer, despite them being related. The two eventually marry and have children, the three young adults change their last name to Sors in the belief that it will help their aspirations, and WWI eventually breaks out, all creating more tension in the family.

With time and various characters passing on, Ignatz and Valerie's sons, Adam (RALPH FIENNES) and Istvan (MARK STRONG), are young men with Adam soon becoming a star fencing champion for Hungary during the 1930s. Faced with the same anti-Semitism his father faced, Adam decides to convert to Christianity so as to join a prestigious officer's club and further his fencing career. During his conversion, he meets Hannah Wippler (MOLLY PARKER), a woman who's not only similarly recently converted, but also engaged to another man.

Despite her pending marriage, Adam eventually wins her over and they marry and have children, just like Istvan and his new wife, Greta (RACHEL WEISZ). Things seem great for the families as Adam heads off for the Berlin Olympics, but a later affair and the outbreak of WWII changes everything, especially since the families - no matter their efforts - can't escape their Jewish pasts.
After the war and its devastation on the country and its people, Valerie (ROSEMARY HARRIS), now an old woman, returns home as does Adam's son, Ivan (RALPH FIENNES). Having seen the atrocities committed during the war, Adam soon joins Andor Knorr (WILLIAM HURT), a communist official heading a witch-hunt of sorts looking for Hungarians who assisted the Nazis during the War.

Beginning a covert affair with Carole Kovacs (DEBORAH KARA UNGER), a policewoman married to a powerful political hero, Ivan soon finds his world being turned upside down as political upheaval, family secrets and changes of fortune alter his life and make him reflect on the history of his family in Hungary.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?
Unless they're fans of someone in the cast, it's not very likely that this three-hour period drama will be of much interest to most kids.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R
For strong sexuality, and for violence, language and nudity.

CAST AS ROLE MODELS:

· RALPH FIENNES
plays three characters in the film, one who's a judge and marries his first cousin that he grew up with, later raping her; another who becomes a champion fencer and has an affair with his sister-in-law; and the third who survives a WWII labor camp, joins the communist party, uses strong profanity, and has an affair with a married woman.
· DAVID DE KEYSER
plays the family patriarch, a proud father and Hungarian Jew who's built a family fortune brewing an elixir.
· JAMES FRAIN
plays Ignatz's quick-tempered brother who doesn't approve of his relationship and marriage to their cousin or defense of his country's governmental practices.
· JENNIFER EHLE
plays the men's cousin who has an affair with Ignatz, eventually marries him and then grows apart from him.
· RACHEL WEISZ
plays Adam's sister-in-law who has an affair with him.
· ROSEMARY HARRIS
plays Valerie as an older woman who's become the family matriarch.
· WILLIAM HURT
plays a communist official heading a witch-hunt of sorts looking for Hungarians who assisted the Nazis during the War.
· DEBORAH KARA UNGER
plays a married policewoman who has an affair with Ivan.

Donna (Paltrow) is a young woman from meager beginnings who has high hopes for the future. She dreams of becoming a first class international flight attendant and is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that her dreams come true. The road to success, though, is rarely a smooth flight, and as she begins her trip, she encounters more turbulence than she ever bargained for. But the real question is whether her bumpy start will cause her to leave her dreams behind or if it will take her on a journey of a lifetime.

Set during the French Revolution, the film tells the story of Jean Valjean, whose theft of a loaf of bread condemns him to an unjust prison sentence and subsequent life on the run. But an act of forgiveness on the part of a Roman Catholic Bishop changes the course of his life forever.

Valjean becomes the mayor of a small town and falls in love with the beautiful, poverty-stricken Fantine. He devotes himself to caring for her and for the inhabitants of the poor town, which he transforms into a thriving community.

Fantine's untimely death signals a new chapter in Valjean's life, during which he raises Fantine's daughter, Cosette, who he desperately attempts to shield from the world and all its dangers. As she matures, she falls passionately in love with Marius, a charismatic young Parisian revolutionary.

All the while, Valjean is hunted by Javert, a policeman whose lifelong search for Valjean has become an obsession. The film culminates in a final, fated confrontation between Valjean and Javert on the banks of the Seine at the explosive height of the July Revolution in 1832.