Meryl Streep essays another foreign accent in this overwrought melodrama. Adapted from William Styron's wildly ambitious semiautobiographical novel (its first line is "Call me Stingo"--get it?), the film follows Stingo (Peter MacNicol), a cornpone author who moves into a Brooklyn boarding
house in 1947 and meets driven Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline) and mysterious Sophie Zawistowska (Meryl Streep), a Polish woman with a past. For most of the film one wonders what Sophie's "choice" is: is she to choose between Nathan and Stingo? But then the film flashes back to monochrome sepia to
depict war, concentration camps, and the moment of revelation.
Competently directed ...
Released:
1982
Rated:
R
Length:
157 mins