Sophie's Choice

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Sophie's Choice

R

1982

2h 31m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

75%

Tomatometer

44 Reviews

85%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

Stingo (Peter MacNicol), a young writer, moves to Brooklyn in 1947 to begin work on his first novel. As he becomes friendly with Sophie (Meryl Streep) and her lover Nathan (Kevin Kline), he learns that Sophie 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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Critics Consensus

Sophie's Choice may be more sobering than stirring, but Meryl Streep's Oscar-winning performance holds this postwar period drama together.

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Pauline Kael

The New Yorker

09/19/2023

An infuriatingly bad movie.

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Bob Thomas

Associated Press

11/12/2018

Sophie's Choice is a rare film, literate, deeply moving and gifted with an absolutely awe-inspiring performance by Meryl Streep.

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Stanley Kauffmann

The New Republic

01/09/2018

In other ways the film is just as unsatisfactory as the book, because it's inseparably strapped to basic flaws. The story has no center, no protagonist. To whom does the action of the novel happen?

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Josh Larsen

LarsenOnFilm

Apr 27

3/4

Streep has what can only be called a commanding fragility.

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Nick Rogers

Midwest Film Journal

06/22/2024

2.5/5

Meryl Streep's performance is brilliant but too often back-benched by writer-director Alan J. Pakula's pokey, misguided adaptation of William Styron’s novel.

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Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

09/07/2020

9/10

It's both crushing and triumphant.

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Tim S.

@RottenTim May 25

Meryl Streep earned her Oscar! Brilliant performance! A choice no mother should ever have to make.

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Jono B.

@jberssen Apr 20

I was so glad I got to see this film. I’ve been wanting to see this since I was a kid Meryl Streep does a fabulous job all the acting and directing I think is well done sometimes it moves a little slow and a little long, but otherwise a great film.

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Orange C

@Traveler3187 Mar 25

It's boring, pointless movie.

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rex W

@RT11010153 Feb 25

Sophie makes two choices in the film: her choice at Auschwitz and her choice between her two lovers. I was really only interested in her choice at Auschwitz. Meryl Steep's clinical, calculating, structured performance is exceptional.

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Jim S

@JimStrong3 Feb 15

Powerhouse acting all around by all three leads, especially Meryl Streep, who performs a high-wire act of balancing mood, emotion, tricky accents, and foreign languages in an absolutely spellbinding performance.

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Wendy V

@MinhPlumb Feb 6

I heard about this movie for years, decades actually. I never watched it because I thought I knew too much about it. It was not what I expected. It was worth all the hype. The perfect movie. Heartbreaking.

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Alan J. Pakula

Director

Meryl Streep

Sophie

Kevin Kline

Nathan

Peter MacNicol

Stingo

Josef Sommer

Narrator

Rita Karin

Yetta

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Synopsis

Stingo (Peter MacNicol), a young writer, moves to Brooklyn in 1947 to begin work on his first novel. As he becomes friendly with Sophie (Meryl Streep) and her lover Nathan (Kevin Kline), he learns that Sophie 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: Alan J. Pakula
Producer: Keith Barish, Alan J. Pakula
Screenwriter: Alan J. Pakula
Production Co: Incorporated Television Company, Keith Barish Productions
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 8, 1982, Original
Release Date (Streaming): May 7, 2015
Runtime: 2h 31m