Rotten
Astoundingly tedious.
Variety Staff, Variety
Sophie's Choice
Between the innocent, the romantic, the sensual, and the unthinkable. There are still some things we have yet to imagine.
1982 · 2h 31m · R
Drama, Romance
Directed by
Alan J. Pakula
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Sophie's Choice
Overview
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.
Director and cast
- Alan J. Pakula Director
- Meryl Streep as Sophie Zawistowski
- Kevin Kline as Nathan Landau
- Peter MacNicol as Stingo
- Rita Karin as Yetta
- Stephen D. Newman as Larry
- Greta Turken as Leslie Lapidus
- Josh Mostel as Morris Fink
- Marcell Rosenblatt as Astrid Weinstein
- Moishe Rosenfeld as Moishe Rosenblum
- Robin Bartlett Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
74%
Tomatometer
Rotten
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.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Rotten
By the end, the accumulated weight and lethargy of the production fails to invest Sophie's fate with the significance Styron achieves.
Derek Adams, Time Out
Fresh
So perfectly cast and well-imagined that it just takes over and happens to you. It's quite an experience.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Fresh
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.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
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