MovieChat Forums > Sophie's Choice (1983) Discussion > Kevin Kline is TERRIBLE in this movie!

Kevin Kline is TERRIBLE in this movie!


I liked Sophie's Choice... but unfortunately I didn't love it. I agree with many on this board that Meryl Streep's performance is truly one of the greatest performances ever! I think Peter MacNichol was very interesting looking when he was younger. I really liked the way he smiled by opening his mouth wide. I know from his recent work that he doesn't naturally smile that way and I've got to say that the smile made him very likable.

The two flashback scenes to the concentration camp were amazing--and the scene with the "choice" is one of the best scenes I've ever seen.

That all being said, I HATED Kevin Kline's performance in this film!!! He is terrible. He overacts every single scene. It seems to me that we are supposed to like his character and ultimately feel sorry for his ailment, but I DESPISED the character and the performance. His performance almost completely ruined the movie for me!

Other than Wild Wild West (in my opinion one of the three worst movies ever made), I have really enjoyed Kline's acting and the over the top style worked great in A Fish Called Wanda. But oh how I wish I could go back in time and clobber the casting director over the head and cast the movie myself with Meryl Streep, Peter MacNichol (though I also thought Timothy Hutton or Matthew Broderick would have been interesting choices for Slingo) and with Martin Sheen or Richard Dreyfuss as Nathan!

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This was the first movie I ever saw him in and ever since, I can't stand him. I don't think his portrayal was over the top...such is mental illness. So he convinced me, which is why I don't like him. Intellectually I know he was acting, but in other movies (e.g. A Fish Called Wanda) he played a jerk as well. IRL I probably would have hit him with something.

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I think the reason he has played 'Jerks' so often was because its apparent, from watching this movie (what I saw of it!) that Kline is superb at seeming unpredictable and madly dangerous.
I think his performance in this film is very good.

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I agree with you about Wild Wild West being one of the worst movies ever made. I'm curious what your other two are please. One that comes to mind immediately is I, The Jury with Armand Assante. If you have seen it I'll tell you which scene but never like to spoil a film for anyone. Richard Dreyfus would have made a terrifically scary Nathan.

I love when an actor does something different like Harrison Ford in the film, uh oh am home with flu and forgot the title, with Michelle Pfeiffer and he's a research scientist of some sort.

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"I agree with you about Wild Wild West being one of the worst movies ever made. I'm curious what your other two are please."

My other two would have to be North and Armageddon. If you haven't seen North, don't. That being said, if you do decide to see it, it is memorably awful! If you get a chance, listen to Siskel and Ebert's review of North on atthemoviestv.com

I bought a bottle of Excedrin after watching Armageddon because of the headache I had after it! The bottle is still sitting in my medicine cabinet almost ten years later. I have never had to use Excedrin since. Armageddon is loud, joyless, pretentious, seizure-inducing crap! And don't get me started on the dialogue!

I'm not the sort of person that HATES a director but so far I have not seen anything by Michael Bay that is redeeming at all. I think right now I feel hatred towards Bay as a director!

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Armageddon was great, but I've not wanted to see it again after viewing it in the cinema. It was very Hollywood but within that genre of movie it was great I think. Was Kevin Kline in that? if so I truly don't remember him. I also don't like him as an actor. I just feel this arrogant jerk vibe from him but I did think he was the coolest one in the Big Chill, but really looking back at it later he was the sellout and the a-hole of the group. I think that's him playing himself really. I don't think he has been one of the great contributors to cinema during his career and I think that is deservedly so. He's just not that wide in his range.

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I could not disagree with you more. I think he gives an unbelievable performance. I just watched the film again last night (sick with the flu) and fell in love with him all over again. Ok, not literally, love my husband, but I do find his character to be utterly romantic. The scene where he is cooking for Sophie and reading poetry with her is one of the most poignant scenes in movie history. Think of it this way, Merryl was able to give the performance of lifetime BECAUSE she had amazing actors supporting her. I think this is the best work he has ever done. Martin Sheen as Nathan? Oh God, I shudder at the thought.

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Kevin kline is a great actor and shows it in this movie.

Don't ever call me a kubrick hater, or I will have my droogs beat you to death.

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Continues to amaze and amuse me when people see a CHARACTER who is over the top and then fault the actor, labeling it 'overacting'. Vivien Leigh got the same accusation for 'Streetcar...' and now Daniel Day Lewis is getting it for 'There Will Be Blood'.


Frank Lee Deere. I don't give a damn.

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Oh my goodness. Kevin is INCREDIBLE in this movie! His character is supposed to be "over the top." It shocks me that someone could think that he was bad in this.

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Sorry, don't agree. If Martin Sheen were the actor you claim he is, he most certainly would have had a bigger film career. Nice guy though. (And please don't get all bent out of shape with my posting, it is JUST my opinion. That's all. People get so darned sensitive on this site)

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"Sorry, don't agree. If Martin Sheen were the actor you claim he is, he most certainly would have had a bigger film career. Nice guy though. (And please don't get all bent out of shape with my posting, it is JUST my opinion. That's all. People get so darned sensitive on this site)"


I'm with you on the sensitive thing... so I type this with no ill will towards you at all. Sheen actually did have a pretty huge movie career in the early to mid-80s (Badlands, Apocalypse Now). The career slowed down in the 90s but then he did West Wing from 1999-2006. If you aren't familiar with his work on West Wing, you should check it out. Not only for Sheen but I LOVE the show and couldn't recommend it more.

I disagree with your argument that seems to say that the better an actor is, the better career he will have. Acting's a cutthroat profession. It's not only about talent. Much of it is about luck and connections. Countless actors who are more talented than even the best of the best in film today (Tom Hanks, Cate Blanchett, Daniel Day Lewis, Kate Winslet, etc.) have no doubt not been able to get their foot in the door. Anyway, just wanted to stand up for my boy Marty Sheen!

Once again, no ill will meant! :)

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Lets not forget the writer, William Styron, who gifted us with his great post WWII novel. Meryl Streep's performance of this complex character leaves me utterly speechless. The music was lifting. A truly rare and great AMERICAN film!!

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i also disagree with this statement, i thought Kline did a really good job, as they all did. Peter MacNichol was so young looking here. I do wonder how old he was when he did this movie.

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Kevin Kline was breathtakingly good in this film. People who hated him in it can't tell the difference between the actor and the role he plays. I can't believe Kline didn't get nominated for an Academy Award for this performance.

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Personally, kevin kline is one of my acting idols. When I was acting I had a bit of a "wwkd" mantra, even buying to book that was written by his acting coach ( How to stop acting- an amazing read even if the guy is a little checkov obsessive.)

It should also be noted that this was Kevin's first film role after having been a theatre actor for so long. He was used to playing to the balconies not necessarily the camera. it's a common problem a lot of actors face. So if you find his performance a little over the top ( it takes my breath away when I watch it) that could be part of it.

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It takes my breath away too! Thanks for your posting.

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"(though I also thought Timothy Hutton or Matthew Broderick would have been interesting choices for Slingo)"

Broderick would have way too young to pull of this role. Granted, at 20, he would have been closer to Stigo's age (22) but he would not have been believable. That's hollywood for you. MacNicol was 28 and only 5 years younger than Streep, but their connection was much more believable than a relationship between Broderick and Streep. It would have made Sophies Choice into a tragic version of The Graduate.

Broderick was also a complete unknown in 1982. In his first films, in 1983, he convincingly plays teenagers. Even by 1986 he still comes off believable as a teenaged Ferris.

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Kevin Kline is AMAZING in this movie. He blew me away with his performance in both this and A Fish Called Wanda.

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I agree. This isn't Kevin's best work. He is a great actor, I've not seen all of his movies, but still think he is very talented. His performance as Nathan did nothing for me, I just didn't enjoy it. And I also didn't care for the character either. To me as a woman, Stingo was way more interesting, which is quite a weird thing to say since I'm not really a fan of Peter's! I'm not sure what is it that got me so upset about Kline's performance. I just didn't like him in this movie. At all.

GO VEGAN.

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Oh, Nathan's as insane in the novel as Kline plays him. It's a terrific performance. I'm surprised he wasn't nominated for an Oscar.
"EXPLANATION, PLEASE!"

CDEGFEDCC. (Shhh!)

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I disagree. Kevin was portraying a guy with a mental disorder (paranoid schyzophrenia, I believe) spelling wrong...sorry. ) Even though at times, it was uncomfortable to watch. I believe someone would act like that. He should have been on some sort of drug or in a mental institution. Or his brother should have had him either living with him or lived close to him.

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I think Styron wanted us to dislike Nathan right from jump-street. We find he's a drug addict. He LOUDLY verbally abuses his girlfriend (while high as a kite), runs downstairs and bullies the new tenant, and off he goes. I don't think it'd be a good idea to understate Nathan's character at all. He was balls-out, a liar, crazy, and dangerous.

I didn't feel the least bit of sympathy for Nathan, and that's just what the story wants, IMO. He was Jewish, yet in love with the thought of his kinsmen in the throes of death, suffering, and dying in the camps. He said it at the beginning; he and Sophie really *were* dying. I think Kline hit the "self-destruction" bullseye perfectly. Nathan was in love with his own death.

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I don't think he was terrible at all, I think he was portraying the character the way it was intended, and we were supposed to have a dislike for him because of it.

And he was COMPLETELY GORGEOUS while he was doing it. I don't think he's ever looked better.

Phoebe Cates is a lucky woman.

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Kevin Kline is one of the greatest living talents we have the pleasure to watch.

He is unforgettable in "Sophie's Choice" which is an unbelievable accomplishment considering he shared the screen with Meryl, in perhaps the best role and in the best performance ever given by any actor on film.

Oh and his mustache was fantastic.

"Don't just stand there, do something!"
"Help. Police. Murder."

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Kevin Kline has his moments as an actor, but he absolutely has a terrible time grasping foriegn characteristics to him. He is great at playing contemporary average characters (The Big Chill, A Fish Called Wanda, Dave, Life as a House) but I find him terribly unconving when he plays extrodinary characters in period pieces. MacNicol and Streep seem very at home in post-war America, but Kline seems to stick out as an imposter from the 1980's. The same thing occurs in Silverado, Kline grows a nice beard, but it doesn't hide the sensation that he doesn't belong in the time period.

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