Review of Sophie's Choice (1982) by Jennifer T — 08 Oct 2015

There are 2 big problems with me watching Sophie's Choice for the first time in 2015:

1) I'm too accustomed to seeing Kevin Kline in comedies, and his acting style doesn't shift all that much for dramas. As a result I found it funny instead of heart-breaking when he went crazy and started screaming at people. It just gave me visions of A Fish Called Wanda.

2) I know all about Sophie's Choice, and have even seen the choice scene multiple times before sitting down to watch it. Without the mystery of why Sophie is the way she is, the movie didn't have a whole lot to grab my attention.

The best moments were definitely when it was in the flashbacks of WWII, because it held a lot more drama and intrigue. The more modern scenes were flat and lacked a lot of emotion for me. In fact, the entire character of Stingo added nothing of value to the film, and any time they went off on a tangent that only focused on him I was totally checked out. Not a horrible movie because it does have a decent story structure, but certainly not one that I need to see more than once.