Wednesday, November 9, 2011

An evening with Sophie

Joe's friend Nate has never seen a Meryl Streep movie. Never. He did not fully know what she looked like or from what country she was. No, Nate is not from another planet. He's a 23 year-old straight dude who'd rather be scoping new hip hop groups than sitting down to watch a 2 1/2 hour holocaust drama from 1982. However, Nate had "an open mind and open soul" and decided to come over last night for a screening of Sophie's Choice.

Joe made a delicious red lentil soup coupled with a quinoa salad for dinner. After filling our bellies we sat down with some wine, white cheese popcorn puffs and raspberry ginger ale (Nate's fav) to expose this young gentleman to the greatness of Meryl.

Nate actually said he enjoyed the movie. I don't know him well enough to tell if he's just being nice, but he said for a drama it was good. He didn't know what "the choice" was prior to seeing the movie, and I think he was a bit surprised at how heavy the tone was at times, but overall I count it as another Meryl success story.

3 comments:

  1. Haha, you make me sound like I've been living under a rock!

    And by the way, I really did enjoy the movie. Since this is a Meryl Streep blog, I'll tell you what I really enjoyed about her character. I feel like it would be easy to find an actor who can play a Polish immigrant with a Polish accent who can describe a re-tell his/her horrific history. However, what I really liked about Meryl's portrayal was that she included so much nuance. She included the stutters and mistakes, the emotional minutiae in her interactions with other characters of someone guilty of years of lies (and I mean lies in the best way possible -- everyone would tell themselves lies if they went through what she went through), and what seemed most important, the understanding of her own mental instability that made her compatible with Nathan over Stingo. Maybe that's a superficial understanding of the character, but I really thought the movie was powerful.

    And I'm 24.

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  2. You only live under a rock compared to other Streepers. ;) Dang. I guessed on the age. And Nate I don't think that's a superficial understanding of the movie at all. Better articulated than I can do!

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  3. I envy those who are able to watch Sophie's Choice the first time with no expectations. While it's a powerful film, and one of Streep's best performances (if not the best), there's something intimate and esoteric about the first experience.

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