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Movies / On DVD / Sophie's Choice
Sophie's Choice

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Sophie's Choice (1982)

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Reviews Counted:26

Fresh:21

Rotten:5

Average Rating:7.1/10

Runtime: 2 hrs 30 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: The film follows Stingo, an aspiring young writer who moves to New York just post-WWII to a Brooklyn boarding house where he becomes friends with Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline), a Jewish research... The film follows Stingo, an aspiring young writer who moves to New York just post-WWII to a Brooklyn boarding house where he becomes friends with Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline), a Jewish research chemist and Nathan's girlfriend, Polish refugee Sophie Zawistowska (Meryl Streep). Nathan and Sophie's relationship is clouded by Nathan's violent behavior, his uncontrollable jealousy, and Sophie's unexpressed but troubling memories of her war experience. Her stories about her life during the war begin to unravel, exposing her as a liar and adding a tone of mystery to the strained relationship between Nathan, Stingo, and herself. The film culminates in a flashback reflecting the horrors of the war and the true cause of Sophie's insufferable pain. Director Alan J. Pakula's film, a departure from his conspiracy and suspense dramas, was an adaptation of William Styron's best-selling novel and the story itself was based on his experiences as a southerner living in Brooklyn in 1947. [More]

Starring: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol, Rita Karin

Starring: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol, Rita Karin

Director: Alan J. Pakula

Director: Alan J. Pakula
Screenwriter: William Styron
Composer: Marvin Hamlisch

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Sophie's Choice

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Bubble View | 1 2 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 
Reviews
Tomatometer Critic Review Category
splat

Derek Adams

By the end, the accumulated weight and lethargy of the production fails to invest Sophie's fate with the significance Styron achieves.

Full Review Source: | comment 1 Comment | Jun., 24 2006 03:55 AM

Time Out

tomato

Literary adaptations rarely come more intelligent than this. A beautiful, haunting masterpiece from start to finish.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | May., 24 2003 08:18 AM

Channel 4 Film

splat
4/10

Tim Brayton

A suffocating 151 minutes long, with a healthy portion of that running time devoted to a hunk of Holocausploitation of the most crass and cynical variety. And that's the good part.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Nov., 05 2009 04:53 PM

Antagony & Ecstasy

tomato
4/4

James Berardinelli

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Apr., 30 2009 03:15 AM

ReelViews

tomato
5/5

Steve Crum

Stunning to the max, and Streep is memorable as Sophie.

comment Comment | Mar., 02 2008 06:53 PM

Video-Reviewmaster.com

tomato
B

Emanuel Levy

The movie is too Hollywood in look and feel--it's garish and overwrought--and the flashback and narration are too conventional, and yet the image of the sickly and pale Meryl Streep recollecting her ordeal lingers in memory long after the film is over.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Dec., 10 2007 01:41 PM

EmanuelLevy.Com

tomato
3/4

Competently directed by Pakula and [features] gorgeous cinematography by Almendros.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jun., 26 2007 04:23 PM

TV Guide's Movie Guide

splat

Variety Staff

Astoundingly tedious.

Full Review Source: | comment 1 Comment | Jun., 26 2007 04:21 PM

Variety

splat

Dave Kehr

The picture is completely devoid of cinematic interest, adopting instead a tiresome theatrical aesthetic in which showy monologues are filmed in interminable, usually ill-chosen long takes.

Full Review Source: | comment 1 Comment | Jun., 26 2007 04:20 PM

Chicago Reader

tomato
3/5

Thomas Delapa

No review available.

comment Comment | Apr., 21 2005 03:01 PM

Boulder Weekly

tomato
4/4

Roger Ebert

So perfectly cast and well-imagined that it just takes over and happens to you. It's quite an experience.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Oct., 23 2004 10:39 PM

Chicago Sun-Times

tomato
3/5

Jeffrey Westhoff

No review available.

comment Comment | Sep., 17 2004 11:06 AM

Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

tomato
3/5

Andy Klein

No review available.

comment Comment | Sep., 02 2004 10:35 PM

Los Angeles CityBeat

tomato
4/5

Janet Maslin

Though it's far from a flawless movie, Sophie's Choice is a unified and deeply affecting one. Thanks in large part to Miss Streep's bravura performance, it's a film that casts a powerful, uninterrupted spell.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Aug., 30 2004 10:17 PM

New York Times

tomato
5/5

Daniel M. Kimmel

No review available.

comment Comment | Jul., 16 2004 07:53 AM

Worcester Telegram & Gazette

tomato
4/5

Carol Cling

No review available.

comment Comment | Sep., 05 2003 11:31 AM

Las Vegas Review-Journal

tomato
5/5

Nell Minow

Heartbreakingly lovely performances.

comment Comment | Jul., 20 2003 05:12 PM

Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies

tomato
5/5

Jules Brenner

No review available.

comment Comment | May., 26 2003 07:27 PM

Cinema Signals

splat
D+

Nick Davis

Incorporates one woman's narrative of surviving the Holocaust into a larger, crushingly banal story of a young, Southern writer's coming of age in the big city of New York.

Full Review Source: | comment 2 Comments | Jan., 10 2003 08:44 AM

Nick's Flick Picks

tomato
3/5

Robert Roten

Wildly depressing.

comment Comment | Oct., 28 2002 04:35 PM

Laramie Movie Scope

 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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