Sophie's Choice (1982)

I rewatched Sophie's Choice today. I probably haven't seen it in over 25 years. I don't remember much about the film beyond that Meryl Streep performance won her the Oscar for Best Actress and the unthinkable titular choice that her character reveals in the film's final act .

The film is a tragic love story between Stingo (Peter MacNicol), a young Southerner recently moved to Brooklyn to pursue a career as a writer, and Sophie and Nathan, the couple who live in the room above his. Nathan (Kevin Kline in his feature film debut) is a brilliant man whose fits of temper shake up the perfect world in which these three have created for themselves. Sophie is the beautiful immigrant living in guilt for surviving the WWII concentration camp where those that she had loved had not.

The performances across the board are phenomenal. Nothing more needs to be said about Streep. It was her career cementing performance which is still much talked about 30 years later. Kevin Kline delivers is this early performance the charm, the intelligence, and that anger that make him one of my favorite actors. And, MacNichol, best know for playing weasels throughout his career and someone whose performance have never truly connected with me, is really good in this role. The arrives in the first scene as a boy seeking adventure and fully matures into a man who has loved and lost by the final credits.

Director Alan J. Pakula creates a nice sense of time and place and praise must be given to cinematographer Néstor Almendros for a creating a visual tone that is warm one minute and chilling the next.

This is a solid movie that holds up well with time. If I had to rate it, I would say a 4 out of 5.