Mrs. Soffel (1984)

Simply A Masterpiece

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Continuing my plan to watch every Mel Gibson movie in order, 8 come to his second American movie of 1984 Mrs Sofel.Plot In A Paragraph: Kate Soffel (Diane Keaton) develops a friendship with Ed Biddle (Mel Gibson) a convict sentenced to death for murder, when she reads the bible to him. A movie like this won't have hurt Gibson with female audiences, even though it failed to make a dent at the box office. The movie almost seems like a showcase for Gibson at times, as with the exception of Keaton, nobody else (including Matthew Modine and Edward Herman) are giving anything to allow them to shine despite both being central to the plot. It's a sad movie, but despite being "a true story" it takes a lot of believing!! How much of it was true and how much was dramatised I have no idea, but I'd say give it a watch and form your own opinions. In my worthless opinion, I'd say it's worth watching once. Mrs Sofel didn't break the top 100 grossing movies of the year.

Diane Keaton is "Mrs. Soffel" in this 1984 dramatization of the Buck McGovern and the Biddle Brothers story.Keaton plays the wife of a prison warden (Edward Herrmann) in 1901 Pittsburgh. The Biddle Brothers, Jack (Matthew Modine) and Ed (Mel Gibson) are in prison and are going to be hanged for murder. In this version anyway, due to their youth and Ed's good looks, the boys are folk heroes more on the style of the James Brothers, and crowds of mostly women gather at the prison each day with gifts, trying to get in to see Ed.As a dutiful wife, Mrs. Soffel brings Bibles to the prisoners and reads to them. Married at 17, she has four children and a stuffy husband, and over time she finds herself attracted to Ed and believing the brothers to be innocent of their crimes. She is also opposed to hanging. Ed talks her into helping with an escape, but when it's carried out, he wants her to come along. Though she resists at first, Ed wins, and she goes on the run with Ed and Jack, leaving her husband and family behind.Diane Keaton, with the help of an excellent script by Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia, The Painted Veil), paints a portrait of an unfulfilled woman who, with Ed, finds freedom and adventure. She does fall in love with Ed, but by helping him escape, she's exerting some of her own power.Remember the days when Mel Gibson was a gorgeous hunk with a wife and a bunch of kids, appearing on Saturday Night Live and making great movies? Yeah, it was years ago. Given that so much has happened to him in the past decades, it was almost difficult to watch him. He gives a wonderful performance, though I think his character was in the script and not the real Ed. In the film, Ed falls in love with Mrs. Soffel; in real life, he undoubtedly just played on her sympathies and used her, as he would have used any woman if one of them had been able to visit him in prison."Mrs. Soffel" captures turn of the century Pittsburgh with beautiful cinematography and the excellent direction by Gillian Armstrong keeps the story moving.A poignant story.****Spoilers here **** In real life, Ed does shoot Mrs. Soffel at her request as she realizes she will not be going back to her family; she survived, went to prison for a time, and when released, she opened a seamstress shop. Her husband had resigned his position and taken the children to live in Ohio. She died several years later.The real main character of this case is Buck McGovern (Terry O'Quinn) who has a minor role here. The capture made his career and he went on to great things.

Australian director Gillian Armstrong makes great films with strong women characters--her earlier Australian film "My brilliant career" being a perfect example. I watched "Mrs. Soffel" because of my admiration for Armstrong and found that "Mrs. Soffel" could not hold a candle to "My brilliant career" even though American actress Diane Keaton was admirable compared to the Australian actresses in the latter.Armstrong had the talented Australian cinematographer Russel Boyd (who was responsible for the seminal works of Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford) once again to work with. While Armstrong and Boyd used justifiably darkened interior shots, I had problems seeing anything for long periods and had to rely on the soundtrack! Armstrong loves to develop the female characters but leaves the male characters totally undeveloped (Mr Soffel and Jack Biddle). This is one reason I prefer the works of Weir and Beresford over Armstrong--even though her latent talent cannot be ignored. It is amazing to see Soffel's daughter getting equal or more prominence in the script than Mr Soffel towards the end.Mel Gibson has made a name for himself by directing "Braveheart," but I give more credence to his acting phase in Australia ("Tim", "Mad Max", etc.). I am convinced that he is a director's actor--doing well with good directors. In "Mrs Soffel" Armstrong has evidently invested time with Diane Keaton, who carries the film. Gibson only lends support to her thanks more to the script than his acting capabilities.Most of the fine tribe of Australian filmmakers of the Seventies have drifted to the US to become richer and gain international recognition--but their work in Australia in the Seventies remains unsurpassed.

Mel Gibson's performance in "Mrs. Soffel" is superb in any event, but viewed in the context that it is the first time he played an American character on film, that his brother was played by American actor Matthew Modine, and that the film was based on a true story of two men from Pittsburgh, it is an even greater achievement.