Apollo Movie Guide's Review of Sophie's Choice

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Sophie's Choice

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Readers' Rating: 83/100

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Sophie's Choice

Voters for the 1983 Academy Awards had a lot to choose from. The best picture winner was the epic Gandhi, which came out ahead of: Tootsie, Dustin Hoffman's hilarious gender-bender; Missing, the gripping true-life film about the 1973 overthrow of the Chilean government; The Verdict, Paul Newman's return to prominence as a burnt out lawyer; and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the classic kids film about a little lost alien. Left out of things entirely in the best picture category, but nominated in five others, was Sophie's Choice, perhaps the most memorable of them all.

Director and screenwriter Alan J. Pakula took William Styron's novel and transformed it into a fascinating, literate, troubling and tragic film that tells the story of Sophie Zawistowska (Meryl Streep), her lover Nathan (Kevin Kline) and their young neighbour and friend Stingo (Peter MacNicol). The story is told from Stingo's perspective, with intelligent narration scripted by Styron and Pakula and voiced by Josef Sommer.

Stingo is a naīve young writer from the south who has moved to 1947 New York to kick-start his career. Sophie and Nathan are the remarkable couple that happens to live upstairs. Sophie is a concentration camp survivor, who remains deeply wounded by that experience. Nathan is a charismatic but erratic young man, described by Stingo as "utterly, fatally, glamorous." We join Stingo in watching Sophie and Nathan's stormy relationship, and Sophie's reflections on her concentration camp experience. These are delivered via extended flashbacks, and while none of these show much violence, they include some of the most heart-breaking cinema I can remember.

At times, Nathan is horribly cruel to Sophie, only to become sweet and loving just hours later. Sophie isn't nearly as inconsistent, but she is equally troubled. Sophie's Choice is about growing up, lost souls and tragedies that sometimes seem unavoidable.

This film is packed with great images, meaningful observations and painfully honest turns of events. Streep's amazing performance won her a well-deserved Oscar, as every breath she takes on screen is that of a devastated concentration camp survivor. Kline, in his first big-screen role, is also marvellous.

Sophie's Choice reaches its most poignant and painful moment when we finally learn what its title means, but every moment of this two and a half hour long film is filled with meaning. It's a substantial movie, and one serious film watchers won't want to miss.

Brian Webster

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