Sophie's Choice (1982)
"Sophie's Choice" follows a friendship between a Polish immigrant (Meryl Streep), her unpredictable lover (Kevin Kline), and their newest neighbour (Peter MacNicol), as they go through their ups and downs, fights and make ups, laughs and tears.
I wasn't too excited about watching this movie beforehand, since it was never on my radar, hence me leaving it as my last watch. Fortunately, It surprised me with how much it had to offer, I was mostly impressed by the elegant cinematography, there were quite a few scenes that had me in awe, due to to their visual element. Having shots in this film framed similarly to a beautiful photograph, is something I definitely didn't expect.
As everyone has already mentioned countlessly, Meryl Streep gives an amazing performance, and ultimately stands out and overshadows her two other cast-mates, not saying that they were bad, although there were some annoying holes in their respective performances, but they were easily nowhere near Streep's league.
The parts of the movie that completely won me over are the flashbacks, those in their own are a whole other and better film, I so wish there was more of them. It also seems as if extra work was put into crafting these scenes especially, because it really feels that a whole gap is there between their level, and the level of the rest of the movie.
My issues with "Sophie's Choice" are the same issues I expected to encounter with this type of film, the melodrama and cheese can sometimes be annoyingly obnoxious and heavy-handed, thankfully though, there wasn't an excessive amount of it. And while I was fond of the three-way friendship, I disliked the fact that it predictably turned into a hidden love triangle, though the movie did make up for it by Sophie's decision by the end, since any other choice would be way out of character.
"Sophie's Choice" was a pleasant surprise, and while I don't imagine myself ever revisiting it, I can recommend it.
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"A film has to be a dialogue, not a monologue — a dialogue to provoke in the viewer his own thoughts, his own feelings. And if a film is a dialogue, then it’s a good film; if it’s not a dialogue, it’s a bad film."
"A film has to be a dialogue, not a monologue — a dialogue to provoke in the viewer his own thoughts, his own feelings. And if a film is a dialogue, then it’s a good film; if it’s not a dialogue, it’s a bad film."
- Michael "Gloomy Old Fart" Haneke