80s Movie Review - Sophie's Choice

Director: Alan J. Pakula
Genre: Drama/ Romance
Runtime: 142 minutes
Year: 1982
Starring: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNichol
 
I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2022 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 21: A MOVIE RECOMMENDED YOUR MY MOTHER
 
Description: Sophie (Meryl Streep)is the survivor of Nazi concentration camps, who has found a reason to live with Nathan (Kevin Kline), a sparkling if unsteady American Jew obsessed with the Holocaust.

Review: Stingo is a young writer from the southern United States who movie to Brooklyn to begin writing his first novel. He rents a room in a big mansion, where he soon becomes friends with his upstairs neighbors Nathan and Sophie. Nathan is a biologist whose team is about to make a major discovery. Sophie is a Polish immigrant who survived the Nazi concentration camps. Nathan is a rather volatile person, who frequently argues and leaves home and sometimes stays away for nights. Sophie then seeks comfort from Stingo, who himself craves affection passionately and is only too happy to accommodate her. During such moments she tells him stories about her life and how she ended up in a concentration camp. Slowly, Stingo gains insight into Sophie’s life, which literally and figuratively contains a lot of scars.

“Sophie’s Choice” can rightfully be called an actor’s film. Visually, the films is also impressive, however, the most of the attention goes to the three lead actors Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline and Peter MacNichol. The film contains long dialogue scenes, sometimes minutes of two people sitting on a bench, but because of the wonderful acting it’s never boring. That is the strength of the film. Especially Meryl Streep, who won her second Academy Award for this role, is convincing as the Polish immigrant. She had to learn a Polish accent and had to speak both Polish and German for the role. And does this flawlessly. For Kevin Kline, “Sophie’s Choice” was his film debut. This is what gave him his Oscar-winning role in “A Fish Called Wanda”.

The story is compelling. We see it through the eyes of Stingo and this way we see the developments in the lives of Sophie and Nathan. The theme of the film is rather heavy, but it has a lot of light-hearted moments as well. But it’s mostly the acting that lifts the film to a higher level.

Rating: 4/ 5