Clevercell Very disappointing...

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Armand touching film. not only for story but for the isle of silence. for inspired acting. and for the flavor of a situation in perfect measure and form. it is not original or a revelation. good actors and correct performance. seductive script and a special lady Bovary. one of promising roles of Mel Gibson and a Matthew Modine with the Streamers dust circle as basic instrument for create his role.after years, important part is aura of film. the dark, the halls, the snow, the tension. and Diane Keaton art to transform the pieces who defines her role in a delicate precise construction. a movie - source of a state of soul. touching, bitter, nice, admirable in a different form. like a large lake in gloomy afternoon.

mickey10022012 I was overwhelmed that a woman could leave her young children behind. No matter, at that point that her husband did nothing to inspire or excite her. The French women had or have it right. Don't ruin the family, take a lover. I have seen similar situations occur in my lifetime.Mostly,though, it is the man that makes horrible choices and pays dearly afterward. I thought that Diane Keaton's performance was fantastic. The dark dank surroundings were shot perfectly, which actually made the first part of the movie appealing. The scene at the house with the children in a loft and the utter desperate setting filled in a lot of background as to why the two men grew into useless men that stole instead of working for a living. Sadly, the movie could be played out in 2001 just as well as it was in 1901.

jotix100 Kate Soffel, the wife of the Allegheny County jail warden, is a woman whose married life appears to be lacking the warmth and love that might have brought her together with Peter Soffel, in the first place. When we first meet her, she appears weak, recovering from an unknown ailment. She is willing to continue her Christian work, distributing bibles to the inmates in her husband's jail.She gets interested in Ed Biddle, a handsome young criminal who is serving time, together with his brother, Jack. It's easy to see why this meek and somewhat shy woman falls deeply in love with the prisoner. He is what her husband is not. When Ed Biddle asks her to help them escape, she is happy to comply. In her mind, Ed represents freedom from her dull life. Kate, who appears to be a loving mother, doesn't mind throwing all away when she falls in love.Nothing goes right as the plan is put in practice. Kate, Ed and Jack are doomed from the start; in the few days she spends time with her new lover, Kate finds a bliss she never knew. She throws away all her responsibilities aside to go with the brothers into an unknown territory, hoping to escape to Canada. In the end, Kate is alone as she must pay for her actions.Gillian Armstrong, a feminist director, seems attracted to strong female characters, as it's the case in this picture. This is a story based on a true incident in the Pittsburgh of the beginning of the 20th Century. Although Ms. Armstrong has succeeded in presenting interesting women, her Kate Soffel, seems the right person to bring to the screen since she has a personality that recalls other strong women the director has examined before.Diane Keaton, an actress whose choice of roles in comedies, and light fare, have been her trademark, here shows a range most viewers didn't know she had. As Mrs. Soffel, she is full of lust and a passion that only a criminal, Ed Biddle, awakens in her. Ms. Keaton's work is the best excuse to see the film. Mel Gibson is effective as the criminal Ed Biddle in one of his rare dramatic roles. Matthew Modine gives a restrained performance. Edward Herrmann, Trini Alvarado, Jennifer Dundas, Terry O'Quinn, Maury Chaykin, are seen among the supporting roles."Mrs. Soffel" came and went without much fanfare, but it's worth a look because of the powerful combination of Gillian Armstrong and Diane Keaton and the interesting cinematography by Russell Boyd.

ecjones1951 "Mrs. Soffel" is a wonderful movie I have seen many times, but the last viewing was so many years ago I'm watching it right now on TCM.I'm a sucker for movies whose main characters suddenly, inexplicably make a decision which goes against everything they seem to embody, or at least that which the viewer has come to know about them. That Kate Soffel's story is a true one makes it all the more intriguing.In early 20th-century America, the lot of a wife, even that of a well-to-do-man and mother to lovely children, was a lonely, empty, barren existence. In a wealthy household with servants, there was very little meaningful work for the mistress of the house to do every day.Even the layers upon layers of clothes Victorian women wore served no practical purpose except to restrict movement and render their wearers merely decorative. Express your opinions and you got packed off to visit relatives in hopes that maybe the change of scenery would "do you good." There were millions of avenues for creative expression and enterprise that were simply cut off for women.Good minds went to waste. Souls shriveled and died.Kate Soffel (Diane Keaton) was the wife of a prison warden in Pittsburgh at the turn of the last century. She served as something of a missionary to the prisoners, giving them Bibles, holding prayer readings with them and hoping to guide them towards remorse and redemption. She never expects to fall in love with one of the inmates. But fall she does, for the charming Ed Biddle (Mel Gibson), who along with his brother Jack, (Matthew Modine) are in jail on murder charges.Kate is suffocating; the Biddles are desperate. Prone to fits of melancholy and depression, plagued with fears that she is not a good mother and that she has failed her husband -- whom she has come to learn she really doesn't know very well -- Kate, like so many women of her era, is desperate for something to end the tedium, the frustration, the despair. She is a perfect candidate for the dangerous voyage she helps plan and sets out on with the Biddle brothers."Mrs. Soffel" raises many ethical and moral issues, among them the divergent path Kate takes from her religious teachings, and the Biddle brothers' guilt or innocence. It can be appreciated equally on one or more levels, but it remains a remarkably restrained depiction of emotions and passion that are anything but.