.jeri.

Well apparently, I hit some sort of strand of Meryl Streep movies lately. Honestly, there's something about her that bothers me, even though I can often admire her work. Most of the movie's I've seen are more recent, so this is probably the second movie I've seen of her in her younger years. Sophie's Choice stars Streep as Sophie, who is a Polish woman who lives in New York after having been in a concentration camp during the second World War. Sophie is dependent on her boyfriend Nathan, played by Kevin Kline and they have a very dynamic relationship. They befriend Stingo, a young writer who moves into their boarding house, who is enamored with their personalities and, of course, attracted to Sophie in particular. As the story progresses, we learn that Nathan isn't quite as quirky as he is mentally unstable, and the dynamics between the trio get more interesting.

I liked the style of Sophie's Choice, although I was at first very annoyed with the character of Nathan and why his character seemed magnetic to other people. I couldn't understand why Sophie would always accept him after he treated her so poorly. But thankfully, the third act of the movie delves into the real main character, Sophie (for a while, it seems like it could be Stingo or Nathan), and her history at the concentration camp. Here is where Streep shines. She was already impressive with the very natural sounding accent and mannerisms of a Polish woman, but her character was almost one-dimensional at first, and the fullness of the character brought out the fullness of her acting and a much more complete story.

I think it's interesting that Kevin Kline didn't get nominated for a Supporting or main Actor award for his exuberant portrayal of Nathan, but perhaps the Academy was as turned off by the eccentricities as I was. I do admit, though, that I'm not sure I've seen him get into his character in any other movie as much as he did in this one.

It was good to see a Polish story of WWII. I think the only other one I've seen is The Pianist. Sophie's background and familial ties made her situation more complex, and her experience working as a secretary for a German officer was a different twist than I've seen in other movies of this type. I hadn't heard about the program of importing white "looking" children into the German culture, so Sophie's efforts to get her child placed in that program was an aspect of the film I found interesting too.

Overall, I think I liked the last part of the movie much better than the first, but it wouldn't be a complete story without both of them. I didn't love the film but admire it for being well made. The character studies of Nathan and Sophie were in depth but there was something about the movie that felt kind of empty at the same time. So, file that under "Glad I watched it, but probably won't watch it again."