Jack Kroll

“…. The searchlight sweep of Styron's book has narrowed down to an intimate focus on evil. This threatens to become claustrophobic, but the sheer power of the story, the sensitivity of Pakula's handling and the acting of Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline make this a gripping and oddly liberating film. “…. But it's Meryl Streep's performance that lifts the film to a high plane of poignance and power. The camera stays close to her like a lover and an interrogator. She responds with an astonishing flow of raw feeling and subtle detail, capturing Sophie's sensuality and anguish, the horror of being forced into an attempted complicity with her Nazi tormentors, and the greater horror of her "choice" during her meeting with the absolute evil at the center of the story. Streep's accent and the expressive Polish and German she speaks in the European sequences are not virtuoso stunts; they are thrilling expressions of character, like the feats of a great musician or dancer that ravish the senses while they enlighten the heart.” Jack Kroll Newsweek, December 20, 1982