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Kevin Kline in Sophie’s Choice 1982

Why isn’t he given more credit for his role, which was a debut and had to match Streep?

Why wasn’t he nominated?

by Anonymousreply 63June 23, 2022 3:42 AM

His relationship with Patti LuPone worked against him and they blackballed him.

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by Anonymousreply 1June 19, 2022 3:54 AM

All of Streep's old movies are unwatchable.

by Anonymousreply 2June 19, 2022 3:54 AM

Shut up, Glenn.

by Anonymousreply 3June 19, 2022 3:55 AM

Jesus - he looks exactly like Robert DeNiro in that photo!!!

by Anonymousreply 4June 19, 2022 4:00 AM

Kline's character is a real pain in the ass, and Kevin made him even more unbearable. Yes, Streep is great, especially in the famous "choice" scene, rather unforgettable. But it's not a film I really want to watch again.

by Anonymousreply 5June 19, 2022 4:01 AM

I thought Klein & the other male lead were the weak links, mostly Klein. I don’t think he deserved a nom. OP - do you think Sophie is a great movie or a film with a great performance?

by Anonymousreply 6June 19, 2022 4:02 AM

^ THE NOM

by Anonymousreply 7June 19, 2022 4:04 AM

R6, It’s too depressing for me to decide, I dislike it from every angle.

But, I’m starting to feel Sharon Stone about Streep’s performance. I don’t know if you can deliver a great performance in a vacuum. And that’s how everyone treats it.

Patti was so thin!

by Anonymousreply 8June 19, 2022 4:40 AM

Who else could even deliver that off the wall performance he gave?

Who else was considered?

Reminds me a bit of Steve Martin in Pennies From Heaven…

by Anonymousreply 9June 19, 2022 4:43 AM

Kline wasn’t right for Nathan. He had none of the danger that Nathan projected. And his teeth were tiny and unphotographable. He was very sexy onstage in The Pirates of Penzance and On the Twentieth Century but he was surprisingly unsexy on camera. He’s had a good film career despite that.

by Anonymousreply 10June 19, 2022 4:47 AM

I've been very vocal on here about how KEVIN KLINE RUINS EVERY MOVIE HE'S IN. And my opinion hasn't changed. If he can win an Oscar, you and I can do anything we can imagine. No limits. Absolutely none.

by Anonymousreply 11June 19, 2022 5:06 AM

I loathed him in A Fish Called Wanda. And he was badly miscast in In & Out.

by Anonymousreply 12June 19, 2022 5:15 AM

I loved him in Soapdish

by Anonymousreply 13June 19, 2022 5:16 AM

It's not a great film.

Pakula was the wrong director for the material.

And, I'm not even sure if that material even works as a film.

by Anonymousreply 14June 19, 2022 5:21 AM

Shut up r12, he was sex on a stick in Wanda, and you know you’d frot that furry chest into a frenzy just like I would.

by Anonymousreply 15June 19, 2022 5:21 AM

Oh, and by the way…WHO were the men up for an award that year that he would have had to contend with?

by Anonymousreply 16June 19, 2022 5:28 AM

I find him charming in comedy and utterly unbearable in dramas, Sophie and The Big Chill in particular. His dramatic acting always seems like he's channelling Ron Burgundy.

by Anonymousreply 17June 19, 2022 5:49 AM

R11 deserves a big case of Kopheglaschlogen.

by Anonymousreply 18June 19, 2022 5:51 AM

This movie role CATAPULTED him into Hollywood. He was 'on fire' for a few years in the 80s and then Hollywood lost interest and his career floundered. He was the Bryan Cranston of the 80s, but streaming fame, internet fame, youtube fame, didn't exist and his "star" faded. He should be regarded as one of the great actors of cinema in the 80s, and we should celebrate him!

by Anonymousreply 19June 19, 2022 6:01 AM

I thought Kevin was really sexy in it. He looked good in a wife beater.

by Anonymousreply 20June 19, 2022 6:02 AM

Compare / contrast with William Hurt, r19.

by Anonymousreply 21June 19, 2022 6:05 AM

I love Kevin Kline I’m just about everything and I couldn’t stand him in this movie. I saw it only once many years ago, but he just seemed so disconnected/off the wall and just endlessly irritating.

Didn’t his nickname in the industry become “Kevin De-kline?” because he turned down so many good roles?

by Anonymousreply 22June 19, 2022 6:17 AM

And those roles were…?

by Anonymousreply 23June 19, 2022 6:19 AM

did you read the novel? it is shitty too.

by Anonymousreply 24June 19, 2022 6:20 AM

Having watched Sophie's Choice twice, once during its original release and again in 2014 one of the things that didn't change was how annoying Kevin Kline was in the film and in no way did he deserve even consideration for any award.

by Anonymousreply 25June 19, 2022 7:11 AM

[quote] "Shut up [R12], he was sex on a stick in Wanda, and you know you’d frot that furry chest into a frenzy just like I would."

I do love a furry chest R15, but I'd be likely to come at his with a lit match. I genuinely cannot stand him. In anything. Ever.

by Anonymousreply 26June 19, 2022 7:29 AM

Agreed, R20. I was really hot for him in this and Pirates. Then I saw his honky boomer dancing in The Big Chill and that killed it. I never liked him in another role and he didn't age well.

by Anonymousreply 27June 19, 2022 2:53 PM

The novel was Styron trying to write a "Jewish novel" and fell short because, despite hanging out with Jewish writers, he really didn't get the right cultural subtleties, despite basing the characters on himself and people he knew. It won many awards and was a best seller despite being controversial. His "Black novel" of a decade before had similar deficiencies, although it had even less to do with his background. I read both and thought they were, at best, ok novels that were lacking "something".

The film had some hope of being a decent movie because novels that lack the right subtext, but have a simple plot often do better on screen. Instead, we get Streep kicking off her run of accents (for which she was mostly praised although the accent seemed distracting here) and Kline as someone who registers less than he should.

Kline had an odd career. He showed some flair for hammy but likable comedy in "A Fish Called Wanda". It was the kind of annoying character that could easily have been less funny. He's good in "In and Out" for similar reasons. He didn't have much to do in "Big Chill" which was a lifeless film saved by a great soundtrack and he had similarly forgettable parts in some other Kasdan films. He could be good in small films where his earnestness played well like "The Emperor's Club". He also was good in "The Ice Storm", but that film had a very strong cast---Sigourney Weaver steals the show, but Jamey Sheridan and Allison Janney are memorable in small parts and Joan Allen captures what was off balance about the 70s in the scenes that focus on her---Kline had to keep up with some real talent there.

by Anonymousreply 28June 19, 2022 3:33 PM

Has Phoebe Cates commented yet?

by Anonymousreply 29June 19, 2022 3:53 PM

There were calls for him to play leads in things like "Kiss Me, Kate" but he never really had a that outstanding a singing voice. He is out-sung by John Cullum in their duet in "On the 20th Century" (granted Cullum had a really wonderful voice), but Kline also didn't have that much solo singing in "Pirates of Penzance" either, though his physical comedy is and "On the 20th Century" were terrific. Perhaps he knew that singing Fred Graham in "Kiss Me, Kate" wouldn't fare too well as it requires a real singer.

by Anonymousreply 30June 19, 2022 4:32 PM

I agree R2. Avoided The French Lieutenant's Woman, Out of Africa, Plenty, Still of the Night, Sophie's Choice, Ironweed, Before and After, One True Thing, Marvin's Room, Dancing at Lunacy or whatever . . .

by Anonymousreply 31June 19, 2022 4:33 PM

I thought Kline was pretty good. I thought Peter MacNicol was horribly miscast. Meryl was transcendent. One of her best. The choice scene is such a gut punch.

by Anonymousreply 32June 19, 2022 4:35 PM

"his physical comedy in it and", that is

by Anonymousreply 33June 19, 2022 4:35 PM

MacNicol really was awful as Stingo. The thought of his Stingo and Streep’s Sophie having sex was utterly ludicrous. I wonder who came close to getting the role.

by Anonymousreply 34June 19, 2022 4:51 PM

I thought he was perfect; charming in mania and tormented in his rages- and hot as hell. A great film. I weep when I hear the music and as for Streep- she is a goddess.

by Anonymousreply 35June 19, 2022 5:21 PM

in the novel, Stingo gets THEBESTBLOWJOBHEEVERGOT from beauteous Sophie who lovingly removes her dentures to perform this gift.

Dumb.

The Godfather? A character has to have an operation because she is "too big down there"

Dumb.

by Anonymousreply 36June 19, 2022 5:21 PM

R16, for Supporting? Louis Gossett Jr. (An Officer and a Gentleman), Charles Durning (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas), James Mason (The Verdict), John Lithgow (The World According to Garp), Robert Preston (Victor/Victoria)

by Anonymousreply 37June 19, 2022 5:48 PM

Kevin Kline is terrific on stage, but never really found his sea legs at the movies. Patti Lupone, same. Meryl Streep returned to the stage very briefly, after her film success.

by Anonymousreply 38June 19, 2022 5:48 PM

He's bland in film.

by Anonymousreply 39June 19, 2022 5:56 PM

NYT 1981:

After a story about the movie appeared in The New York Times last July, Alixe Gordin, the casting director for 'Sophie's Choice,' says that she was 'inundated with calls and letters from every actor 19 to 30 years old who had any chance of looking 22.' 'I've never been involved with any talent search that had such an obsessive quality,' she added. 'I even got almost a dozen calls from writers who said they weren't actors but they identified with Stingo and wanted to play the part.'

Miss Gordin chose Mr. MacNicol as one of 50 actors she sent to read for Mr. Pakula because, when she saw him in the Manhattan Theater Club production of 'Crimes of the Heart,' he reminded her of Kim Stanley's 'ability to reach moments of truth that made you want to cry.' For the last two weeks the Hollywood grapevine has said it was a toss-up whether the role would go to Mr. MacNicol or to Michael O'Keefe, who was nominated for an Academy Award as supporting actor last year as Robert Duvall's son in 'The Great Santini.' Both actors read for the role a number of times, but Mr. MacNicol, who spent two seasons at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and whose first movie role was as the apprentice sorcerer in this summer's 'Dragonslayer,' finally won Stingo after Mr. Pakula spent an hour staring at him yesterday to make sure he was physically right for the part. Mr. Pakula said. 'I thought Peter had the right difficult combination of humor and passion.'

by Anonymousreply 40June 19, 2022 6:33 PM

Michael O’Keefe was also the second choice for Luke Skywalker.

R35, you liked that Marvin Hamlisch score for Sophie’s Choice? I thought it was trash. So soppy and sentimental.

by Anonymousreply 41June 19, 2022 7:06 PM

R32- The problem was Peter MacNicol was supposed to be LUSTING after Meryl Streep's character Sophie but he came across to me as such a QUEEN- he SHOULD have been lusting after Kevin Kline instead.

by Anonymousreply 42June 19, 2022 7:13 PM

Years after the movie was released, Styron said he thought MacNicol had been miscast.

by Anonymousreply 43June 19, 2022 7:15 PM

I agree with the critic from The Boston Globe re MacNicol:

,"Pakula's literal adaptation of Styron's Sophie's Choice is an admirable, if reverential, movie that crams this triangle into a 2+1⁄2-hour character study enriched by Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline and nearly destroyed by Peter MacNicol."

by Anonymousreply 44June 19, 2022 7:24 PM

I've never seen him contribute anything to a film, in fact it's rather the opposite: he's a spoiler of roles and especially good roles.

by Anonymousreply 45June 19, 2022 8:05 PM

MacNicol would have been fine as a young Truman Capote. But Stingo? No.

by Anonymousreply 46June 19, 2022 9:53 PM

Michael O'Keefe would have been better.

by Anonymousreply 47June 19, 2022 9:54 PM

I think Barry Miller would have made a good Stingo...

by Anonymousreply 48June 20, 2022 12:13 AM

He would have been seen as “too ethnic.” Stingo was a Southern cracker. Would Peter Gallagher have been too pretty?

by Anonymousreply 49June 20, 2022 12:17 AM

There are a whole lot of movies from the '70's that I would never watch again. Sophie's Choice, Taxi Driver, the Deer Hunter. Brilliant, but no thanks. Meanwhile, if I see Tootsie is on, I'll watch

by Anonymousreply 50June 20, 2022 12:26 AM

Tootsie is from the 80s but I get your point.

by Anonymousreply 51June 20, 2022 6:58 PM

Both Tootsie and Sophie’s Choice are 1982. There were some great films that year, and I love them both!

by Anonymousreply 52June 20, 2022 7:17 PM

R37….Uhhh….LEAD.

*incredulous*

by Anonymousreply 53June 22, 2022 3:29 PM

Gallagher was too much of a lead at that point. His transition to character actor (e.g., American Beauty) was basically a parody of a leading man.

by Anonymousreply 54June 22, 2022 3:36 PM

[quote]I loathed him in A Fish Called Wanda.

His performance in "A Fish Called Wanda" is basically his performance in "Sophie's Choice." It's absolutely insane. I don't know how he got away with it.

He's in a terrible movie called "Violets are Blue" with Sissy Spacek which is maybe one of the worst films I've ever seen.

by Anonymousreply 55June 22, 2022 3:52 PM

[quote]Michael O'Keefe would have been better.

Possibly, but he was a very uneven performer at the time. He was so good in "The Great Santini" and then so bad a year later in "Caddyshack." MacNicol was terrible, though, so it's possible that even a bad O'Keefe performance would have been better.

by Anonymousreply 56June 22, 2022 4:01 PM

Everyone was terrible in Caddyshack. They were all doing coke.

by Anonymousreply 57June 22, 2022 4:11 PM

Would Mandy have been any better at that point? Of course, Meryl had him fired from "Heartburn" years later. But at that point, Mandy was a year away from dealing with Barbra in "Yentl", who must have liked him, because he never looked better on film or on stage.

by Anonymousreply 58June 22, 2022 4:44 PM

R56- MacNicol was great at expressing his PLATONIC love/worship of Sophie

by Anonymousreply 59June 22, 2022 4:51 PM

Yes, in the way that Truman Capote would have. But when it became sexual it was grotesque.

by Anonymousreply 60June 22, 2022 6:08 PM

[quote] MacNicol was great at expressing his PLATONIC love/worship of Sophie

I don’t think it was platonic. Stingo wanted to fuck Sophie ever since the night Leslie Lapidus left him with a raging boner.

by Anonymousreply 61June 22, 2022 8:36 PM

Was Lapidus really meant to be pronounced “Luh-PEE-dus”? I thought it was “LAP-ih-dus.”

by Anonymousreply 62June 22, 2022 10:09 PM

R57 Sounds like it would have been a fun set to work on.

by Anonymousreply 63June 23, 2022 3:42 AM
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