Powerful acting a saviour

Press, 27 June 1983, Page 12

Powerful acting a saviour

hens petrovic

SOPHIE’S CHOICE Directed and written by Alan J. Pakula Sophie Zawistowska is a woman with a guilty secret in “Sophie’s Choice” (Savoy), and it is this secret that gives the film its name. The trouble is that you have to sit through about 210 minutes of sadomasochistic “entertainment” to find out what her choice was. I do not like walking out of a cinema feeling depressed and flattened as if I had just been through an emotional wringer. This, however, is what Meryl Streep does in “Sophie’s Choice,” much as Jessica Lange did in “Frances.” In other words, why pay good money to experience such trials and tribulations when it’s much cheaper just to go home. What saved both of these films from just being dank and dour exercises in neoGothic horror was the excellent, almost overpowering acting by the main characters (much as Rod Steiger gave life to “The Pawnbroker”). Earlier this year, when it was Academy Award-guess-ing time, I had chosen Jessica Lange for her brilliant performance in “Frances,” but now, however, I am happy to concede that Meryl Streep truly deserved the best actress Oscar (while Jessica was given the best supporting actress as a fillip). There are a few bright and lively outdoors scenes which look as if they were taken from Paul Mazursky’s Greenwich Village, but all of the important scenes look as if they have emerged from a book read by torchlight underneath the blankets. Meryl carries off many of these slow but important

scenes with only close-up shots of her face as she reveals dreaded secrets of her past, while looking as ruminative as a cow on cannabis. One amazing fact, although, attesting to Meryl’s magic, is that she manages to keep the audience quiet and entranced during these difficult scenes. Another factor, of course, is the power of the story, by William Styron, which is followed as faithfully as possible by the director and writer of the screenplay, Alan J. Pakula. It is not for me to tell you what Sophie’s secrets are but most of them are lies which become more terrible as the show goes on — until we learn about her fatal choice. In this sense, it is like a hall of mirrors, where each new revelation changes the viewer’s perspective of the true tale. In other words, what is truth? This problem does not only apply to Sophie but also her lover, Nathan (Kevin Kline), who comes across as a sensitive, intelligent and educated individual, until we are told that he is a paranoid-schizo-phrenic — which is also hard to take. The story is seen and told through the eyes and words of a young Southerner with literary ambitions (Peter McNicol) who seems overwhelmed by these

goings-on, as any bum in Brooklyn would be. One cannot help feeling he should have caught a boat right at the start and become an American in Paris. His tale then, would have been even more exotic and, possibly, less hard to believe. One may be able to dismiss an S-and-M exercise but one cannot do this with Meryl Streep’s performance — she is truly astonishing. She uses all her familiar mannerisms to full effect — be they nervous fingers, wistful smiles or odd angles of her face — just as she did in “Kramer vs Kramer” and “The French Lieutenant’s Woman.” In fact, “Sophie’s Choice” has a lot in common with “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” in that things are not always what they seem to be, and that she again demonstrates her uncanny ability with foreign languages and accents. In “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” she mastered a beautiful English accent, which is virtually impossible for most Americans. This time, she goes one step further and copes very well with the German and Polish languages during the Auschwitz concentration camp sequences. It makes one feel cold to hear her talk about “Vernichtung.” I cannot speak for her Polish, but her German is by far the best I have heard in a long time. I do not know any Germans who speak their tongue that well. This can only be explained in the film by the fact that although Polish by birth, Sophie’s father was a professor and linguist who taught her the tongue in academic fashion. This is a remarkable film but I suggest you take some Valium instead of razor blades along.