Arella Glaser plays Sara (Helen Mirren’s character in the flashback), who is a talented high school student in Nazi-occupied France, and who happens to be Jewish. Though Sara and her family live in the supposed “free zone,” it becomes clear that she and her family may be free no longer. She is spirited away during a roundup of Jews and is helped by her polio-afflicted classmate Julien (Orlando Schwerdt), while the fate of her parents is unknown to us…and her. Julien and his family (mother played by Gillian Anderson) hide Sara in their barn, away from the prying eyes of their suspected Nazi-sympathizer neighbors and a former crush of Sara’s (Jem Matthews) who has become a devout Nazi.
Sara and Julien’s growing closeness develops slowly but convincingly, thanks to some nicely layered work by Arella Glaser and Orlando Schwerdt. Gillian Anderson contributes some good work as the Mother, especially later in the film, as more Jews are being transported to “labor camps.” And though the film is generally involving, there is little that is surprising. One knows how these stories will proceed (beware moments of genuine joy, for they’re inevitably followed by moments that are not). And the framing device, while supplying perspective, does defuse some possible suspense, and is a rather flimsy peg to hang the more weighty aspects of the main tale.
So you can go to Saturday Night and lament that the actors playing John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Chevy Chase, etc are nothing like their real-life counterparts, and bemoan the fact they made changes to the factual story to make this movie—or you can enjoy, like I did, the fast-paced, almost dizzying recreation of that momentous first night in October 1975. Saturday Night does capture the chaos, the camaraderie, the conflicts, the clashes, the crashes, and even the comedy. Directed by Jason Reitman, from a script by Reitman and Gil Kenan, the frantic and frenetic first half-hour does allow itself to be slightly more measured later, as it shows an increasingly beleaguered Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) coping with the shortcomings of his lighting crew, the egos and insecurities of his budding stars (as well as host George Carlin), and some superiors who would like to can the whole enterprise and show Johnny Carson reruns. Though some of the performers (Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner…heck, all the female stars) get short shrift, all have their moments, and a few, like Cory Michael Smith’s Chevy Chase, Matt Wood’s John Belushi, and especially Lamorme Morris’ Garrett Morris, get ample opportunity to show why they were instrumental in the show’s success. In addition to the SNL cast, there are some good contributions from Willem Dafoe (as a threatening studio exec), Robert Wuhl, and especially, J.K. Simmons as Milton Berle. Though Berle was probably not at the studio for the big night (he did host SNL infamously, a few years later), Simmons’ depiction of Berle’s self-assurance and vanity seems spot-on, especially in his confrontation with Cory Michael Smith’s younger, talented–and more insecure—Chase. It’s one of the film’s highlights…even though it might just have been an invention of the writers. Saturday Night captures the spirit and energy of an important night, and if it’s not 100% fact, it’s 95% entertainment.