Sunday, March 6, 2011

#91 Sophie's Choice (1982)

I had been putting this one off because I knew that Sophie was a Holocaust survivor, so I knew I needed to be in the right state of mind for this movie (if that would ever happen), and it wasn't one that I could fit in before work or between errands, for example. I actually saw it last Tuesday night, while Travis was out of town. I had been watching a minute of "The Daily Show" earlier that evening, and they made a joke mentioning Sophie's choice. I had had the movie from Netflix for about a week at that point, but I figured it was time and I was too curious to find out what her choice was.

This movie is narrated by a young writer moving from the South to Brooklyn in 1947 to begin his "big exploration." He rents a room of a house where Sophie and her boyfriend Nathan are also staying. As he becomes best friends with Sophie and Nathan, he hears her story of what she has gone through in her past, living through Auschwitz, nearly dying, and losing all of her loved ones. It's an incredibly intense movie, and when I learned what Sophie's "choice" was, it was the most chilling choice I could have ever imagined, and I'm tearing up now thinking about it.

This is certainly a movie that deserves to be on the list. Meryl Streep has an impressive and convincing performance as Sophie, and now I see why she has her reputation as such a very talented actress. From now on, she will probably always look like a Polish immigrant to me.

Rating: 8.5/10

Big Names: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol (from "Ally McBeal"), Josh Mostel (not really a big name, but I recognized him from Billy Madison!)

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