Sophie's Choice

I thought this was a very sad movie. To me, I will say that this movie definitely has flaws yet is outweighed by two incredible things: (1) Meryl Streep's performance, one of, if not the best, performances by an actress of all time and (2) the scene with Sophie's choice. Stingo, a writer, played by Peter MacNicol, is renting out the lower room of Yetta Zimmerman's house and becomes friends with a couple renting the upper area of the house, Sophie Zawistowska (played by Meryl Streep) and Nathan Landau (played by Kevin Kline). The viewer is played in an interesting dynamic where we are told this is a trio of best friends but there is definitely underlying sexual tension between Stingo and Sophie. I do think Stingo isn't necessarily needed as a character. We learn of Sophie's story, at least a decent amount, through his lens and throughout the movie, after learning of such much tragedy, he is just thirsting for her because he is a virgin and doesn't really acknowledge the horrors she has gone through to survive. Also imo MacNicol gives the least strong performance of the three, not bad though. Nathan Landau is a really interesting character. Incredibly charismatic but easily switches his personality in a scary manner- sometimes he can be the most fun, supportive person to be around, the other times he is an abusive bigot. We later learn that he is schizophrenic and has been (somewhat) lying about being a biologist doing research for Pfizer, instead working as a librarian for Pfizer. He's very clear on his dislikes: infidelity and the Nazis. He develops this attachment to Sophie after nursing her back to health where if he can't have her, no one else can, yet he's also gone until late at night "working". Sophie is fascinating. She has this kind of optimism for the best consistently- about sticking with Nathan, about Stingo, etc. The daughter of a law professor and linguist, she speaks many languages, including Polish and German. Her father is also a Nazi sympathizer, which she lies about in order to be with Nathan. She uses her beauty and stereotypically Aryan looks to survive and attempts to use it to save her children, Jan and Eva, from suffering in Auschwitz. The most famous scene in the movie, in which the officer forces her to save either Jan or Eva, or both will die, is devastating. Sophie at the last second picks Jan to continue the family name and our last view of Eva is her screaming for her mother as an officer drags her away. In the end, Sophie chooses to go back to Nathan, who (when we last saw him), threatened to kill Sophie and Stingo for infidelity (even though they never made out). They end up committing suicide together by taking cyanide, and the film ends with Stingo returning to the house to find their bodies. The movie is about a series of choice that are made and how each of the main three characters views survival for themselves.