Review of Sophie's Choice (1982) by Cory T — 08 Apr 2008

The "queen of accents", whom I presented with an Honorary Academy Award not long ago in my speech class, is at the top of her form here in 1982. I have, unofficially, declared Meryl Streep to be the second greatest actress ever to grace the screen, equally lodged between two C(K)ates.

Sophie Zawistowska is one of the most complicated women ever to be adapted from a novel and, it seems only logical, that for this character to be effectively portrayed, a strong actress was needed. To say this performance (and the movie itself, of course) is heartbreaking is a gross understatement. It is, at the same time, perfect in nearly everyway.

One of the most powerful directorial techniques was the use of little-to-no music. The movie is filled with long scenes of dialogue, usually by Sophie, that reveal more and more about her painful past; it is the silence between these lines of dialogue that seem to penetrate just as deeply.

Sophie is a Polish-Catholic immigrant, living in Brooklyn two years after World War II ended. She survived the Holocaust and escaped Auschwitz, but lost everyone she ever knew. Attempted suicides during liberation didn't work, either. Sophie seemed convinced she was destined to survive and travel to America, but she didn't know why...

She is nursed back to health by a biologist, or so we are told he is one, named Nathan played wonderfully by Kevin Kline. Nathan seems to genuinely love Sophie and Sophie loves him, but their relationship is unnaturally brutal. Nathan mistreats Sophie constantly, but then is tender towards her, beds her, and life makes sense again.

Enter aspiring novelist, Stingo, a Virginian country-boy with a proper rearing and genuine compassion for other people. Stingo forms a strong friendship with Nathan and Sophie, but eventually forms an uncontrollable passion for Sophie.

Their friendship is challenged as secrets are revealed and these characters take on a dimensional realism with each new one.

This film is uniquely intense and allegorically rich (I particularly love the connections made, very subtely, between two of Emily Dickinson's poems). Meryl Streep truly does give one of the most heartfelt and painfully realized performances I have ever, ever seen.

"Sophie's Choice" is one of those grand cinematic achievements that exists to remind us of the beautiful power that can be evoked from film. It is perfect.