Adoption
can present significant psychological problems to the adoptee
if
handled incorrectly. In An American Rhapsody,
the problems are explored in more depth than any previous
film. The location for much of the film is Hungary, where
Suzanne (later played as a teenager by Scarlett Johansson)
is born to affluent parents as Communist rule descends in
Budapest. Her parents, Margit and Peter (played by Nastassja
Kinsky and Tony Goldwyn), escape to Vienna in 1955 and from
there to Tarzana in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.
However, a separate escape is organized for Suzanne, only
a baby, by her grandmother. (Babies were not allowed by the
organizer of the first escape for security reasons.) When
the woman who is to hustle Suzanne across the border reveals
that she will drug the baby so that sudden crying will not
alert authorities, the grandmother decides to abort the escape,
fearing that the baby will be ditched at the first sign of
trouble. Instead, the grandmother arranges for some friends
in the countryside to take care of Suzanne until she can later
join her parents, but the adoptive parents know little about
the circumstances. Next, the grandmother is imprisoned while
her property is confiscated. However, the adoptive couple,
Maria and Jeno (played by Mae Whitman and Balázs Galkó)
do not tell Suzanne about her birthparents. Six years later,
after the grandmother gets out of prison, she arranges for
Suzanne (played at that age by Kelly Endresz Banlaki) to join
her birthparents. However, she decides not to tell the adoptive
couple about her plans, and the child is put on an airplane
bound for a strange country to stay with a couple and their
daughter. Inevitably, Suzanne does not at first believe that
the strangers are her birthparents, and she is homesick for
the couple in Hungary who acted as her parents for the earliest
years of her life, so she runs away to a park. When her birthfather
Peter finds her, they make a promise: She can return to Hungary
when she is older, but meanwhile she should try to love those
who say that they are her birthparents. However, Suzanne’s
birthmother Margit treats Suzanne as if she were in Hungary,
forbidding her to go out with boys at night. Ultimately, Suzanne
is locked in her room, and bars are placed on the windows
of her room. Suzanne then finds a shotgun in her closet and
tries to shoot her way out. Thereafter, she reminds Peter
of the earlier bargain, and she is put on a plane for Budapest
at the age of 15. After she arrives, she realizes that she
is too Americanized to resume a life with her adoptive parents.
Moreover, her grandmother explains the circumstances under
which her birthparents escaped and how her grandfather earlier
died trying to protect her birthmother from rape. Suzanne
then decides that her home is really in America, so she returns,
and her birthmother treats her with more wisdom. Based on
a true story experienced by the director, Éva Gardos,
An American Rhapsody is dedicated to her birthparents.
MH
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