“A mother has to make a very difficult decision” says the tagline on IMDB. And yes, it is true that Meryl did the scene about her dramatic decision in just one take. As she said, having to repeat it, would have been excruciatingly painful. But –here comes the infamous “but”– in my opinion, such decision is not what this movie was about.
Furthermore, this overpowering but nonetheless fleeting fraction of the whole story, her choice, only hints to the reason behind her motherly ways afterwards: overcompensation out of guilt.
With exceptional performances by the three main characters and a very odd script that felt like a roller-coaster in between joyful valleys, loops of obsession, and peaks of anguish, I had to force myself to carry on until some sense of resolution could give meaning and encompass it all for me. A brilliant touch in storytelling that helped me to see it all through the eyes of the narrator, just as the events unfolded for him as well.
With the same no nonsense, with the same intrigue, with the same confusion… with the same desire to finally be able to understand. It took me two days to figure this out! And that was when I remembered how it had been explicitly included in the script, all along:
Stingo: Sophie, I want to understand. I’d like to know the truth.
Sophie: The truth does not make it easier to understand, you know. I mean, you think that you find out the truth about me, and then you’ll understand me. And then you would forgive me for all those… for all my lies.
Stingo: I promise, I’ll never leave you.
Sophie: You must never promise that. No one, no one should ever promise that. Ah, the truth, ah, the truth, I don’t even know what is the truth – after all the lies I have told.
This movie is about the spectator, the witness, the one who, although involved, has been silently granted the responsibility of absorbing it all, internalize it, and do something with it in “a frantic attempt to beat back death.”
A voyage of discovery… not Judgement Day, only morning. Morning, excellent and fair.