Sofies Welt

A while ago, I started reading a Dutch translation of Sophie's World. While I got only as far as its treatment of Kant and Hume, I was amazed by its capacity to provide a chronological overview of Western philosophy in a way that's accessible for teenagers and adults with a limited philosophical background.

Combining a mystery story with the history of philosophy and using clever examples to illustrate new philosophical insights, the book really managed to stimulate one's curiosity for what came next while at the same time offering some very interesting information.

As I started reading other books and spending my time on other activities, I stopped reading the book in spite of my curiosity. Owning a copy of the movie version, I figured I could just as well finish the story by watching the movie.

Boy oh boy, was that a mistake. The movie just didn't capture either the atmosphere or the intent of the book. The actors were poorly casted and the plot was shopped up and rehashed so amateurishly it left only very little of the philosophical depth of the book.

The movie was confusing, superficial and downright insulting to one of the greatest introductory works to the world of philosophy ever written. I found no redeeming qualities in this movie and highly recommend everyone to skip it and just read the book instead.

It is a cliché that movies based on books tend to be not nearly as good as the book. This movie doesn't just confirm that cliché. It's a caricature of that cliché.

Although I haven´t read the book Sofies Verden, that the movie are based on, I got something to think about very fast. The movie can be felt a bit to long, but makes people think about the most basic things in life as why we live at all. So have you read the book or think about the world of today and in the past you don´t afford to miss Sofies Verden.

Jostein Gaarder has written a book that is a good introduction to philosophy for young people (and other beginners). Sofie Amundsen is a fifteen year old girl, who meets the mystic philosopher Alberto Knox. Thereby she gets a profound education in the story of philosophy. But unfortunately, the film is something totally different. I counted the philosophers that were even mentioned - they were only six. Instead Sofie gets to travel in time and space, experience the Renaissance, the Russian revolution etc; and thereby she gets to meet some prominent people, such as Shakespeare and da Vinci - or, more correctly, their stereotypes. I don't see anything interesting in this. My opinion is that this film is superficial and meaningless, although it 's technically well done with skilful actors in the main characters. The problem, I think, is that philosophy is not a visual subject.

If you want a quick peak into the world of philosophy, Sofies verden should be the perfect choice for you. The film makers have made a lot out of a very difficult and complex book, and the cast is OK, although certainly not fantastic. See it, be puzzled, and discuss the different philosophical questions raised in the movie with a good friend. It may not make you want to applaud, but it does make you think!

O.K. No one really expected a film to portray in a few hours what Gaarder painstakingly created in his bestselling novel, but this film doesn't even come close to capturing the essence of Sofie's philosophical journey through adolescence.

The amateurish efforts of some of the cast distracts one's attention from the extremely simplified storyline. Will probably appeal to kids but we adults should stick to the book. Might I suggest a BBC television production? Perhaps a ten part series with professional actors and more subtlety. A big budget is, (contrary to popular convention), not as necessary as it may seem for the modern film-maker. Despite being the "biggest" and "most expensive" Norwegian film ever made, "Sofies Verden", is, unfortunately, far from being the best.