Given that
throughout her career Meryl Streep has been nominated for an Oscar 19 times, it
would be a tall order to narrow down her best performances. However it would
not be too much of a challenge to see the three films for which she has
actually won. Her second win in her career was for Sophie’s Choice (1982), a searing drama whose title has become
synonymous with making an impossible decision. Also noteworthy, it is the
cinematic debut of Kevin Kline who delivers an equally powerful, but much more
energetic performance.
For years I had
heard the expression “Sophie’s Choice” in pop culture as a way to express a
decision with no good outcome without fully understanding the reference. Last
January the movie became available on Netflix and the answer to the question
“what is Sophie’s Choice?” was revealed to me towards the end of Pakula’s and
it is a choice that only truly evil people could give. If by any chance you
have not yet seen the movie or read the book on which it is based on I won’t
reveal the title’s meaning, but only say it is heart wrenching once it is
explained.
Despite the very
heavy material, Sophie’s Choice is a
beautiful movie that is also a very New York story. The viewer sees the action
unfold through the eyes of Peter MacNicol’s character, a southerner named
Stingo who has come to Brooklyn in 1947 to become a writer. No matter the era,
a writer in the New York City area is going to be struggling for money so
Stingo has to live in a shared accommodation building. Two of his roommates in
the building are hard to miss, as they occasionally have shouting matches for
the whole street to hear.
The couple,
Nathan Landau (Kline) and Sophie Zawistowski (Streep), seem to be diametrically
opposed, but are quite charming and loving when they are not screaming. Sophie
is a shy Polish immigrant who is having trouble adapting to the culture and
language of her new homeland. In a sad scene she asks an impatient librarian
for a book by Charles Dickinson, but the mean guy cannot understand she has
mixed up Charles Dickens with Emily Dickinson. Nathan on the other hand is a
loud and energetic man who is very knowledgeable on matters of science. At time
he will mock Stingo for his southern roots with derogatory comments, but later
will apologize and invite him for a fun day out.
On good days the
three of them make for the best of friends, but Stingo soon gets plenty of life
experience for his future writing career when he slowly learns about their secrets
and their past. Flashbacks to Europe reveal Sophie’s involvement in the
Holocaust, her time spent in a concentration camp, and the many horrors she
faced there. She is ashamed to admit she had to do questionable things, which
haunt her soul even in the safety of her new life.
Streep is of
course amazing in her performance as Sophie, but Kline also does a lot of heavy
lifting as the manic Nathan. In some scenes he is jovial and full of life,
taking full command of a room as he makes his entrance, but in other scenes he
threatens to use that energy for violence when he suspects Sophie of
infidelity. When his secret is also revealed, it all makes perfect sense.
Throughout his career Kline has delivered similarly animated performances,
notably in A Fish Called Wanda, but eventually
you realize Nathan’s mood swings are no laughing matter.
Nowadays twist
endings seem to be mostly reserved for horror movies (looking at you M. Night
Shyamalan), but Pakula’s film has a twist that leaves you both shaken and
reflective. Once you find out the choice Sophie has to make you may feel free
to judge her, however the question you may ponder for years is: what would you
have done in her place?
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