Synopsis
Stingo, a young writer, moves to Brooklyn in 1947 to begin work on his first novel. As he becomes friendly with Sophie and her lover Nathan, he learns that she is a Holocaust survivor. Flashbacks reveal her harrowing story, from pre-war prosperity to Auschwitz. In the present, Sophie and Nathan's relationship increasingly unravels as Stingo grows closer to Sophie and Nathan's fragile mental state becomes ever more apparent.
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Cast
- Meryl StreepZofia "Sophie" Zawistowski
- Kevin KlineNathan Landau
- Peter MacNicolStingo
- Rita KarinYetta
- Josh MostelMorris Fink
- Robin BartlettLillian Grossman
- Eugene LipinskiPolish Professor
- John RothmanLibrarian
- Joseph LeonDr. Blackstock
- David WohlEnglish Teacher
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
Sophie's Choice is a fine, absorbing, wonderfully acted, heartbreaking movie. - 100
Chicago Sun-Times
Sophie's Choice is a fine, absorbing, wonderfully acted, heartbreaking movie. - 90
The New York Times
Thanks in large part to Miss Streep's bravura performance, it's a film that casts a powerful, uninterrupted spell. - 90
The New York Times
Thanks in large part to Miss Streep's bravura performance, it's a film that casts a powerful, uninterrupted spell. - 75
Boston Globe
Alan Pakula's literal adaptation of William Styron's Sophie's Choice is an admirable, if reverential, movie that crams this triangle into a 2 1/2 -hour character study enriched by Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, and nearly destroyed by Peter MacNicol. [21 Jan 1983] - 75
Christian Science Monitor
The overall result is a serious though harrowing journey into the dark corners of this century, marked by a compassionate approach and even a fillip of optimism at the end. - 75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
The film is a respectable, claustrophobic and slick piece of work, and cinematographer Nestor Almendros' color strategies - Rembrandt-like light at night, lemony tones during the day, desaturated sepia at Auschwitz - are arty to a fault. [14 Dec 1982] - 75
TV Guide Magazine
Competently directed by Pakula and featuring gorgeous cinematography by Almendros, Sophie's Choice is an overlong, fairly schlocky film that takes itself very seriously.
