Saw this enchanting movie yesterday. A movie that won an Oscar for Merylstreep and was nominated for cinematography, Screenplay, Music and Costume design. But thats not what matters. It is the way the movie draws you slowly but surely into the worlds of Sophie, Nathan and Stingo - seperately and as best friends. The plot has startling revelations every half an hour. Some new piece of insight into each of their lives something that makes you understand and relate to them better. Each of these characters fight with their own demons at the same time trying to help and understand each other. Sophie lies about her father, uses his name in auschwitz,chooses between her children, cheats in her marriage, refuses to be drawn into the Resistance,tries to seduce a Nazi officer and continuously humours her suspicious boyfriend - but in the context of her life.. she comes across as a touchingly vulnerable woman fighting for survival of not just herself but those she loves. A very normal human being undervery very abnormal circumstances.
The pink flat in Brooklyn where the three friends meet and love and fight and seperate signifies a cheer that they desperately try to draw and reflect but fail more than occassionally. Nathan the brilliant always- been- free jew in love with the Auschwitz-returned Catholic Sophie is caught in the vortex of the ironies of their lives to the point of self-destruction. Can't believe Nathan is the same Kevin Kline who was famous for his ' What was the middle thing?' one-liner in the ' Fish called Wanda'. An absolutely riveting performance.
Stingo , in who's voice we hear the story, is the least disturbed - if emotional disturbances can be quantified or qualified! A trifle over-whelmed by Nathan and devoted to Sophie, he represents the normal, the average human being that sincerely wants to help but almost always fails to fully empathise.
Meryl Streep in her in-your-face closeup conversations makes a fidget of the eye , and a tilt of the head speak volumes. In fact I think she is one actress who in many movies has used fidgeting as a tool to express myriad emotions. A sudden turn of the head, hands at the neck, and a jerky step this side and that..and you see the conflict in her mind in the context she wants you to. ' The Bridges of Madison County' is just one another example. And of course, her Polish-accented broken English is another weakness that strengthens her appeal.
The heart-wrenching lines below in the context of Sophie and Nathan's lives at the end of the movie..leaves you deeply saddened and thankful for the simpler complexities of our lives.
Ample Make This Bed
Ample make this bed.
Make this bed with awe;
In it wait till judgment break, Excellent and fair.
Be its mattress straight, Be its pillow round;
Let no sunrise' yellow noise Interrupt this ground.
-- Emily Dickinson
My Rating : 9/10
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