wow um i feel so angry and gross after finishing this movie. basically all i knew about this movie going in was that meryl streep gave an all time performance as a holocaust survivor in a tearjerker of a film. meryl lived up to the hype - she was riveting and precise and heartbreaking - but color me surprised when 80% of this movie was about the creepy, slimy, exploitative men in her life. we don’t really get her perspective until 90 minutes into the film. 

why the fuck is a movie about a woman’s trauma told from the perspective of a 22 year old boy that wants to fuck her?? at the start i was like “hm why has this random scene of stingo trying to sleep with a random girl been inserted into the film?” only to find out it’s to bookend him losing his virginity to sophie IMMEDIATELY AFTER SHE TELLS HIM ABOUT HIS CHOICE. and the way he was so handsy and touching her after the first time she told him about her past?? the fact he proposes immediately after she escaped a different abusive relationship? disgusting.

like i was enduring the emotionally abusive relationship because i thought perhaps the film would maybe make some point about how she was in a bad relationship because she didn’t think she deserved better after the choices of her past. but it never really gets into that, and instead explains away his abuse by saying he had schizophrenia, which again contributes to bad mental health stigmas. it’s not like i’ve never watched a male-gazey film before, but to this degree in the telling of a holocaust story made me feel soo uncomfortable. 

it must be said meryl is marvelous in this and the movie shines in the flashbacks and when her closeups when she’s telling the stories of her past. she shows the subtleties of her past trauma in the tiniest facial expressions so well. but a shame it’s in a movie that doesn’t befit her talent in my opinion.