I’m reading Redeeming Love for the 4th {?} time.
I cried at a couple of parts the first few times.
Now, this ache swells in me. On every other page.
Tears well up in my eyes, and my heart feels like it may just burst.
It’s not mystory.
But it is.
It’s completely my story.
It’s the way I’ve thought, the way I’ve been. It’s the way I’ve treated God & men.
It’s the way I’ve ached. It’s the way I’ve pushed away, been terrified, and even given in.
It’s my favourite book of all the books I’ve ever read.
{Though, this one is a close second.. it’s in a different category altogether.}
This story, and the way my heart so deeply connects to it, just makes me raw.
It brings up some of the things I live as though I’ve forgotten.
It reminds me that I’ve been so beautifully rescued & perfectly loved.
Sophie’s Choice is about the conflicted relationship between Sophie, Nazi concentration camp survivor, and Nathan, a Holocaust obsessed man.
Lee Anne’s Take
Wow. Just, wow.
This movie felt, for me, all over the place yet somehow, completely fit together. Two entire story lines get told in this one film {it’s a long one}. The acting is incredible. During the first parts of the movie, when you’re in the first story line, {the one of the characters currently} it seems as though it might take forever to get anywhere. And just when I was about to tell John that I didn’t like the film, they took us back in time – to Sophie’s past. So far, in the whole film, you think you’ve got the title figured out. You think you know what Sophie’s Choice is… and then, they give you a whole other story that brings so much light to the present while still being completely separate – and giving you another reason to find the name of the film to be very fitting.
The first little while during the film, I kept thinking – I KNOW that guy! Referring to Peter MacNicol as Stingo…
{Side note about me with films: I always remember where ‘that guy’ or ‘that girl’ has starred previously. Or, has had a really minor role, too.}
I could not figure out for the life of me, where I knew him from.
Finally, I gave in & looked him up on IMDb. It’s the pediatric doctor from Grey’s Anatomy. It was interesting to see him here, so young. And his acting was incredible. Really, really incredible acting all around.
It was an emotional roller coaster of a film, but definitely a story worth telling. Many moments of heartbreak and despair, but so worth it, in my opinion.
Let’s jump into John’s thoughts….
John’s Take
Sophie’s Choice was an incredibly interesting film. It had layers both in emotions and in the story itself. I found myself being gripped by the emotions of young love, a crush of sorts, and then the agony of seeing someone you love make an awful choice. The use of color in this film is striking, never drawing attention away from the story instead the colors gave bold underlying statements about the emotional climate of the storyline.
Without giving anything away, the film takes a major turn and surprised me in its rich back story. The acting by Meryl Streep is some of the best I have seen from her and reveals why she has had the various roles through out her career. Sophie’s Choice reminded me a bit of A Streetcar Named Desire because of both the relational dynamic between all the characters and the use of a house to confine the film to one primary location. When things become difficult in the film it seems as though the filmmakers pushed all the characters together, almost as if to say “Ok, now let’s work it” and this of course add to the intensity and emotional depth of each scene.
(From left to right) Peter MacNicol as Stingo -> Meryl Streep as Sophie -> Kevin Kline as Nathan
Kevin Kline does an amazing job in this film AND it is his first feature. The tortured inner-self, the deeper artist and con-artist, the way he commands attention the moment he enters the room – he starts his film career with a more complicated role than most actors but still shows his humanity in a such a vulnerable, enjoyable way. He always surprises me with the intensity he brings, even in the calm moments, you know there is a storm brewing in his heart and mind.
A story, although hard to watch in many ways, worth your time.
Have you seen Sophie’s Choice? What are your favorite Kevin Kline and Meryl Streep films?
