Le choix de Sophie

If the Oscars were to take every Best Actress winner ever -- from Janet Gaynor to Helen Hunt -- Meryl Streep would definitely have a good shot at winning against them. She gives a spellbinding, totally believable performance as Sophie, a timid Polish woman who befriends Stingo (Peter MacNicol), while she tells him of her tortured past in a concentration camp. As always, she does her foreign accent without fault, and puts her all in her performance, better than she's ever done. The movie itself is very good, too -- it may drag at times (at 2 1/2 hours), but definitely worth a look.

This is still one of my favorite movies of all time ....and absolutely the best acting by an actress in all the years since then. Streep is magnificent and flawless. The "choice" scene was so horrifying to me (a mother of a young son and daughter at the time) that it took me several years before I could watch the movie without skipping past that part. It is such a small scene, yet its impact was so haunting and so horrifying - I can't think of any other scene in a movie that has affected me like that. Kline was terrific as well, and the musical score is beautiful and memorable. All in all, a wonderful film, and a perfect 10 from me. What a gifted actress!

Meryl Streep's performance as Sophie is simply the finest performance ever captured on film. Period. The subtlety and depth with which she reveals Sophie's wounds are simply spellbinding. She is at once radiantly beautiful, yet deeply wounded. She is charming, yet vulnerable. She is someone you want to love, yet someone whose pain keeps you at a distance.

This film takes the viewer on an intense emotional journey. Anyone, but especially anyone who is a parent, would have to be an emotional rock to not be absolutely haunted by this story. As much as I have studied and pondered the Holocaust, this film has connected me to those events more emotionally than I have ever been before.

This film, and Ms. Streep's performance, are a gift to humanity.

Although achingly literary at times, moments of true emotional power are rendered by fluid storytelling, Nestor Almendros's haunting cinematography, Marvin Hamlisch's quietly effecting score, a touching performance by Peter MacNichol, and a seminal performance by Meryl Streep; one that Kim Stanley (the celebrated actress/teacher and Oscar nominated mother to Jessica Lange in 'Frances' of the same year) proclaimed, "the titanic portrayal of her generation."

No matter what your initial feelings about this film, I encourage you to go back and take in Streep's dark dance of loss, madness and, finally, sorrowful redemption.

It's 1947. Stingo (Peter MacNicol) moves from the south to Brooklyn trying to be a writer. Sophie Zawistowski (Meryl Streep) and Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline) are his amorous volatile couple and upstairs neighbors. She's Polish Catholic having survived Auschwitz and haunted by a heart-breaking secret. He works at Pfizer and is obsessed with the Nazis. The movie has long flashbacks that reveal Sophie's past and secrets.

It's a very slow moving movie at times. It meanders and teases for the first hour. It can get tedious at times. There are some interesting bits like Dickens and Leslie Lapidus. The three actors are superb but they can only hint at the final explosive reveal. The reveals are compelling bits of the puzzle. Streep is impeccable transitioning between the various languages. Kline does a good deteriorating personality. MacNicol gives a solid performance to give the audience a voice. Of course, the climatic scene is heart wrenching iconic cinematic history. The piercing girl's scream is devastating and it shows on Streep's face.