Sophie’s Choice (1982)
79%RT Audience Score:
Awards & Nominations: Won 1 Oscar
13 wins & 12 nominations total
Sophie’s Choice may be more sobering than stirring, but Meryl Streep’s Oscar-winning performance holds this postwar period drama together
Sophie’s Choice is a movie that will make you laugh, cry, and question your own life choices. Meryl Streep’s performance is so good, it’s almost unfair to the other actors. The story is heartbreaking, but the interactions between the characters are what make it truly memorable. Sure, there are some flaws, but who cares when you have Streep and Kline giving it their all? If you’re in the mood for a movie that will make you feel all the feels, Sophie’s Choice is the way to go. Just make sure you have some tissues handy.
Production Company(ies)
Distributor
NA
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Reiserovo castle, Samobor, Croatia
MPAA / Certificate
R
Year of Release
1983
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Mono
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:NA
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Language(s):English, Polish, German, French, Russian
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Dec 8, 1982 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 14, 1998
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol, Josef Sommer, Rita Karin, Stephen Newman, directed by Alan J Pakula, written by Alan J Pakula, drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Bob Thomas, Stanley Kauffmann, Keith Phipps, James Berardinelli, Variety Staff, Dave Kehr, Marvin Hamlisch, Nestor Almendros, Holocaust survivor, postwar period drama, emotional, powerful, tragic, poignant, character-driven, slow-paced, nuanced, intense, disturbing, heartbreaking, captivating, enthralling, sobering, literate, gifted, awe-inspiring, Oscar-winning performance, human instabilities, great secrets
Worldwide gross: $30,036,000
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $91,908,889
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,058
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 10,022,780
US/Canada gross: $30,036,000
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $91,908,889
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 792
US/Canada opening weekend: $202,131
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $618,512
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,356
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $12,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $36,719,492
Production budget ranking: 1,018
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $19,773,447
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $35,415,950
ROI to date (est.): 63%
ROI ranking: 1,087
Kevin Kline – Nathan
Peter MacNicol – Stingo
Josef Sommer – Narrator
Rita Karin – Yetta
Stephen Newman – Larry
Director(s)
Alan J. Pakula
Writer(s)
Alan J. Pakula
Producer(s)
Alan J. Pakula, Keith Barish
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Won 1 Oscar
13 wins & 12 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees, Oscar Winners
All Critics (41) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (32) | Rotten (9)
Sophie’s Choice is a rare film, literate, deeply moving and gifted with an absolutely awe-inspiring performance by Meryl Streep.
November 12, 2018
Bob Thomas
Associated Press
TOP CRITIC
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?
January 9, 2018
Stanley Kauffmann
The New Republic
TOP CRITIC
The way Streep inhabits Sophie, and brings her history to life whether she’s explicitly talking about the past or carrying herself across the room with wounded grace, can’t help but make parts of the rest of the film seem smaller by comparison.
April 29, 2014 | Rating: 3.5/5
Keith Phipps
The Dissolve
TOP CRITIC
Without Streep, Sophie’s Choice would have been a very good motion picture. With her, it attains greatness.
April 30, 2009 | Rating: 4/4
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
TOP CRITIC
Astoundingly tedious.
June 26, 2007
Variety Staff
Variety
TOP CRITIC
The picture is completely devoid of cinematic interest, adopting instead a tiresome theatrical aesthetic in which showy monologues are filmed in interminable, usually ill-chosen long takes.
June 26, 2007
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
It’s both crushing and triumphant.
September 7, 2020 | Rating: 9/10
Mike Massie
Gone With The Twins
For all the significance of the revelations about Sophie’s past, it is the interaction between the three central characters that gives the story its strength.
July 13, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
David Parkinson
Radio Times
The film is tentative when the story demands voice. Sophie’s Choice, no matter how disturbing, remains muted.
July 13, 2020
Leonard Klady
Winnipeg Free Press
Streep and Kline, embodying their characters in a way that goes beyond performing, obliterate the excesses on their straight and stirring journey to the heart.
June 17, 2020
People Staff
People Magazine
The amazing intimacy Pakula creates with the audience ultimately makes Sophie’s Choice the best film of the year.
June 17, 2020
Lawrence O’Toole
Maclean’s Magazine
Whatever the film’s weaknesses are, it is, albeit unsurprisingly, saved by Streep.
June 17, 2020 | Rating: 6/10
John Oursler
PopMatters…
Plot
Sophie is the survivor of Nazi concentration camps, who has found a reason to live with Nathan, a sparkling if unsteady American Jew obsessed with the Holocaust. They befriend Stingo, the movie’s narrator, a young American writer new to New York City. But the happiness of Sophie and Nathan is endangered by her ghosts and his obsessions.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Meryl Streep’s performance in Sophie’s Choice is described as “astonishingly impeccable” and “transformative” by Fresh Kernels.
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