Mrs. Soffel

The final release in the calendar year of 1984 was the first American film by Australian director Gillian Armstrong, who scored a major international success with the 1979 period drama My Brilliant Career. Diane Keaton stars as the titular Kate Soffel, the wife of a prison warden in 1901 Pittsburgh. After healing from a mysterious ailment that kept her bedridden for weeks, the devoutly Christian mother of four decides to visit the inmates where her husband (Edward Herrmann) works. She reads the Bible to them and becomes fascinated by convict Ed Biddle (Mel Gibson). He and his brother Jack (Matthew Modine) are scheduled to be executed for a murder committed during a series of robberies they undertook, but there is a large campaign by many in the town to commute the sentence. Mrs. Soffel comes to believe that these men may be innocent of the crimes they were convicted of, but her infatuation with Ed may cloud her judgment. Unaccustomed to the lusty feelings this hunky prisoner has evoked in her, she assumes what she's feeling must be love and a sign that he is innocent. Ed also professes his love for her, but he's a cunning opportunist, and she's his only shot at escape.

Critics had no idea what to make of this movie, and it was panned by just about everyone except Pauline Kael. Part of the issue may have been that Keaton is such a modern actress, and it was (and still is) hard for audiences to see past her Annie Hall / Looking for Mr. Goodbar 1970s post-hippy-chick screen persona. Kael certainly was able to, and I didn't have a problem with Keaton in this role because she embodies Mrs. Soffel's innocence, longing, and delight, as opposed to fear, in her strong physical and emotional attraction for Ed. She infuses the dark and dour picture with a giddiness that carries over through the beautifully shot escape scenes in the film's second half.

The movie was sold as a Harlequin romance, but its sexy qualities are restrained and implied. Keaton and Gibson have an unusual chemistry, which is well served for this unusual romance. It's been interesting going back through contemporaneous reviews of these early Mel Gibson movies, all of which are so much better (and he’s so much better) than the critics of the day seemed to think. Mrs. Soffel also features a terrific supporting cast, including Trini Alvarado (who would play Meg March in Armstrong's delightful 1994 version of Little Woman), making her feature debut as Mrs. Soffel's wise-beyond-her-years eldest daughter. Australian cinematographer Russell Boyd (Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli, Starstruck, Tender Mercies, A Soldier's Story) provides the photography, which conveys a repressed claustrophobia in the interiors and a gorgeous, expansive sense of freedom once the characters are outside in the wide-open snowy vistas. The film states at the top that it's a true story, but we are given no other information about the real-life Mrs. Soffel or Ed Biddle. While it has all the trappings of a movie made from a best-selling novel, this was an original screenplay by Ron Nyswaner (co-writer of Susan Seidelman's first film, Smithereens, and Oscar-winner for Jonathan Demme'sPhiladelphia). While it's hardly a masterpiece, this is one of those 1984 "failures" that is far better than its reviews or box office tally would lead one to believe.