Sophies Entscheidung

It's 1947. Stingo (Peter MacNicol) moves from the south to Brooklyn trying to be a writer. Sophie Zawistowski (Meryl Streep) and Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline) are his amorous volatile couple and upstairs neighbors. She's Polish Catholic having survived Auschwitz and haunted by a heart-breaking secret. He works at Pfizer and is obsessed with the Nazis. The movie has long flashbacks that reveal Sophie's past and secrets.

It's a very slow moving movie at times. It meanders and teases for the first hour. It can get tedious at times. There are some interesting bits like Dickens and Leslie Lapidus. The three actors are superb but they can only hint at the final explosive reveal. The reveals are compelling bits of the puzzle. Streep is impeccable transitioning between the various languages. Kline does a good deteriorating personality. MacNicol gives a solid performance to give the audience a voice. Of course, the climatic scene is heart wrenching iconic cinematic history. The piercing girl's scream is devastating and it shows on Streep's face.

Without a doubt, Meryl Streep delivers the Greatest Performance By An Actress EVER - period.

The performance is totally naked, where you can almost feel her sorrow come right out of the screen. For all of the heart wrenching scenes in this movie, you never once feel as though Streep is going over-the-top. That says alot for someone who spends just about half of the time in her scenes with a tear in her eye. Everything about her performance just seems so effortless and natural. This especially shows when she is speaking German flawlessly, or English with a very convincing Polish accent.

The fact that Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol are not completely lost in this movie says alot for their performances. Kline himself delivers a great performance of a man suffering from delusions and bi-polar syndrome. It is one of his greatest performances as well. Peter MacNicol plays the role of a character who pales in comparison to the other characters. MacNicol has the somewhat undesirable task of having to play the character who carries the least amount of baggage. He therefore might be overlooked, when viewing at the movie as a whole. However, MacNicol does a great job with the character, not trying to make more out of it than it is supposed to be. His role is very important to this movie.

But the real story here is Streep. Her performance would be a stand out against any other performance in history. I honestly believe that. Streep just digs down deep here - delivering lines that just put a chill down your spine.

Comments from 2008 Viewing: Pakula skillfully brings the Styron novel about a woman's harrowing journey through WW2 to the screen. Streep's performance comes across as too mannered initially but must be considered a success ultimately, worthy of the Oscar she received. Although his character is supposed to be moody and manic, Kline is still much too animated and somewhat annoying as Streep's lover. MacNicol is fine, bringing much needed normalcy into the story as the young man befriended by the couple. The scene depicting the title of the movie is perhaps the most heart-wrenching in all of cinema. Hamlisch's elegiac score helps create a haunting atmosphere.

Comments from 2013 Viewing: The scenes in Brooklyn, which take up much of the film, are repetitious and somewhat dreary. The flashback scenes are disjointed and lacking in narrative flow. Pakula's direction seems heavy-handed and too respectful of the book. Rating reduced from 8 to 7.

I don't know why I didn't want to see Sophie's Choice, not for years. I knew about Meryl Streep's performance, Alan J Pakula. Kevin Kline and I also knew that I had to see it eventually. Well, Christmas 2017 brought the shattering story into my life and now forever in my subconscious. Extraordinary is the first word that comes to mind. Meryl Streep's performance is out of this world. Every detail in her creation is a sort of link to her heart and therefore to mine. "Emil Dickens?" Her eyes, asking the question to the awful librarian will stay with me forever. Meryl Streep as Sophie asked that question 35 years ago. Amazing! What a devastating treat. It will make me go back to see all of her films., specially "A Cry In The Dark", "Plenty", "The Bridges Of Madison County" "Julia and Julia" even "Death Becomes Her" and "The Devil Wears Prada" Thank you Meryl Streep, thank you very much.

This is still one of my favorite movies of all time ....and absolutely the best acting by an actress in all the years since then. Streep is magnificent and flawless. The "choice" scene was so horrifying to me (a mother of a young son and daughter at the time) that it took me several years before I could watch the movie without skipping past that part. It is such a small scene, yet its impact was so haunting and so horrifying - I can't think of any other scene in a movie that has affected me like that. Kline was terrific as well, and the musical score is beautiful and memorable. All in all, a wonderful film, and a perfect 10 from me. What a gifted actress!