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Sophie's Choice

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Original title

Sophie's Choice

Year

1982

Running time

157 min.

Country

United States

Director

Alan J. Pakula

Screenwriter

Alan J. Pakula. Novel: William Styron

Cast

Music

Marvin Hamlisch

Cinematography

Néstor Almendros

Producer

ITC. Distributor: Universal Pictures

Genre

Drama. Romance | Holocaust. 1940s

Synopsis

The year is 1947. Aspiring southern author Stingo (Peter MacNicol) heads to New York to seek his fortune. Moving into a dingy Brooklyn boarding house, Stingo strikes up a friendship with research chemist Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline) and Nathan's girlfriend, Polish refugee Sophie Zawistowska (Oscar-winner Meryl Streep). There is something unsettling about the relationship; Nathan is subject to violent mood swings, while Sophie seems to be harboring a horrible secret. Stingo soons learns that both Nathan and Sophie are strangers to truth; the audience is likewise led down several garden paths by a series of sepia-toned flashbacks, depicting Sophie's ordeal in a wartime concentration camp. The scene in which we discover the facts behind Sophie's "choice" is a gut-wrenching one; it might have been even more powerful had not the film taken so long to get there. It is betraying nothing to reveal that the character of Stingo is the alter ego of William Styron, upon whose best-selling novel the film was based. The film is rated R, due in great part to a disposable scene wherein Stingo tries to put the make on a "liberated" female intellectual. (Hal Erickson: All Movie Guide)

Awards: 1982: Oscar: Best Actress (Meryl Streep). 5 Nominations

1982: Golden Globes: Best Actress - Drama (Meryl Streep). 3 Nominations

1983: BAFTA Awards: Nom. for Best Actress (Streep) & Most Outstanding Newcomer to Film (Kline)

1982: New York Film Critics Circle: Best Actress (Streep) & Best Cinematography

1982: Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Actress (Meryl Streep)

1982: Writers Guild of America (WGA): Nominated for Best Adapted Drama Screenplay

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Critics' reviews

"Though it's far from a flawless movie, 'Sophie's Choice' is a unified and deeply affecting one. Thanks in large part to Miss Streep's bravura performance, it's a film that casts a powerful, uninterrupted spell."

Janet Maslin: The New York Times
"It's bleak, but there's a kind of sad beauty in the agony and it's hard to imagine a viewer who will not be moved on some level by this story and the way it is told."

James Berardinelli: ReelViews
"Sophie's Choice is a fine, absorbing, wonderfully acted, heartbreaking movie. (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of four)."

Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times
"The picture is completely devoid of cinematic interest, adopting instead a tiresome theatrical aesthetic"

Dave Kehr: Chicago Reader

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Ranking Lists Position

52 Movies with a Great Female Lead (58)

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Sophie's Choice

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