Sophie’s Choice **** (1982, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol, Rita Karin, Josh Mostel) – Classic Movie Review 4498

Writer-producer-director Alan J Pakula’s quietly devastating 1982 film, faithfully adapted from the bestselling novel by William Styron, stars Meryl  Streep, who won a Best Actress Oscar as Sophie, the enigmatic Polish survivor of Nazi concentration camps. It is the film’s only Oscar, though there are four other nominations, for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Original Score – but noticeably not Best Film or Best Director.

Kevin Kline scores strongly too as her charming, explosive American Jewish lover Nathan, who gives Sophie her reason to live but is obsessed with the Holocaust. Peter MacNicol also stars in a rather clichéd role as Stingo, a struggling young US Southern writer who takes a room in a Brooklyn boarding house in the summer of 1947 and becomes the friend of the unhappy couple who are concealing deep secrets.

The three stars’ luminous if slightly self-conscious performances are arguably the main attractions of a long, perhaps over-careful movie version of a haunting book.

Director Pakula, writing his own screenplay for the first time, is not rigorous enough with the text, allowing too many scenes to run too long and the overall length of the film run into overtime at 157 minutes. However, it is one of Streep’s key appearances though, in a powerful and nuanced performance, and cinematographer Nestor Almendros ensures that both the film and its star look truly special.

Also in the cast are Rita Karin, Stephen D Newman, Josh Mostel, Greta Turken, Marcell Rosenblatt, Moishe Rosenfeld, Robin Bartlett, Eugene Lipinski, John Rothman, Joseph Leon, David Wohl and Ulli Fessl.

The film’s narrator is Josef Sommer.

It is co-produced by Keith Barish, scored by Marvin Hamlisch and designed by George Jenkins, and the costumes are designed by Albert Wolsky.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4498

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com