.jpg)
.jpg)
Title: 'Sophie's Choice'
Release Year: 1982
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Cast: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol.
Plot: The aspiring writer Stingo arrives at a family guesthouse to write his first novel but he's disturbed by the presence of a young couple conformed by Nathan Landau, a troubled unstable man and Sophie Zawistowski, a polish woman who can't scape her past.
Review: After she was overacted in 'The Hours' (one of my favourite movies) and somehow spoiled its quiet pace, I've had never trusted Streep's skills anymore. After 'The Iron Lady' I regained some of the trust but it's with 'Sophie's Choice' that I have seen what Meryl Sreep is capable of.
Mostly led by her, Pakula's film focuses on the three friends. One is the observer who falls in love with Sophie. The other is Sohpie's mentally ill boyfriend, who lies about his job and his faculties everyday. The final one is a complex, tortured woman who lives terrifyed for the decision that she had to make years before.
Streep's performance is out of this world; from the concentration camp when she's skinny and bald, to the days she suffers from high fevers and anemia and the present day. Imitating the accent of a real Polish to perfection, Streep transforms Sophie into a vehicle to show everything she has to give. And the level she achieves is so remarkable that it leads the movie by herself.
Tortured by her past, Streep's character can't forget the decision she had to make in order to save one of the children; condemning the other
Together with the complicated trio that she has with her psychotic boyfriend and the sweet yet nervous Stingo, she tries to live a normal life, but she can't forget the day that, in the camp, she had to decide (to choose) which of his children was going to live and which one was going to be cremated (the first day they arrive). The fact that then the other is also killed while staying in the camp may take away some importance to this decision for the spectator, but as a mother she had to be responsible for ending with the life of one of her kids. How she escapes is left unsaid (she had a deal to save his son that fails but nothing is said of a deal for her), maybe because her soul is still kept in there, never forgetting the final screams of her daughter.
Mostly led by her, Pakula's film focuses on the three friends. One is the observer who falls in love with Sophie. The other is Sohpie's mentally ill boyfriend, who lies about his job and his faculties everyday. The final one is a complex, tortured woman who lives terrifyed for the decision that she had to make years before.
Meryl Streep gives a mesmerizing performance as Sophie Zawistowski
Streep's performance is out of this world; from the concentration camp when she's skinny and bald, to the days she suffers from high fevers and anemia and the present day. Imitating the accent of a real Polish to perfection, Streep transforms Sophie into a vehicle to show everything she has to give. And the level she achieves is so remarkable that it leads the movie by herself.
Tortured by her past, Streep's character can't forget the decision she had to make in order to save one of the children; condemning the other
Together with the complicated trio that she has with her psychotic boyfriend and the sweet yet nervous Stingo, she tries to live a normal life, but she can't forget the day that, in the camp, she had to decide (to choose) which of his children was going to live and which one was going to be cremated (the first day they arrive). The fact that then the other is also killed while staying in the camp may take away some importance to this decision for the spectator, but as a mother she had to be responsible for ending with the life of one of her kids. How she escapes is left unsaid (she had a deal to save his son that fails but nothing is said of a deal for her), maybe because her soul is still kept in there, never forgetting the final screams of her daughter.
Sophie's choice. Meryl Streep shot the scene only once and didn't want to do it again. Already a mother at that time, she later said that the scene had been exhausting and psychologically demanding to make
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario