Sophie's Choice

[1982, Movie]

Sophie's Choice: Review

Meryl Streep essays another foreign accent in this overwrought melodrama. Adapted from William Styron's wildly ambitious semiautobiographical novel (its first line is "Call me Stingo"--get it?), the film follows Stingo (Peter MacNicol), a cornpone author who moves into a Brooklyn boarding house in 1947 and meets driven Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline) and mysterious Sophie Zawistowska (Meryl Streep), a Polish woman with a past. For most of the film one wonders what Sophie's "choice" is: is she to choose between Nathan and Stingo? But then the film flashes back to monochrome sepia to depict war, concentration camps, and the moment of revelation.

Competently directed by Pakula and featuring gorgeous cinematography by Almendros, SOPHIE'S CHOICE is an overlong, fairly schlocky film that takes itself very seriously. Streep emotes in customary fashion; Kline overacts wildly; MacNicol is charming in an unforgiving role.