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Very disappointing...

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

A different way of telling a story

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

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.

I found the relationship with the mother, Keaton's character, and her eldest daughter, Trini Alverado's character, fascinating. As Mrs. Soffel became more confused about her emotions and how she felt about her life, in general, she became more of what we think of nowadays, as an adolescent, not quite knowing her place in this world and where she fit in. She could see flaws in her present life, for the first time, and many of the possibilities out there for her in the world at large. Her daughter, on the other hand, was a stable "grown-up," knowing her exact place in the world, where she fit in, what was expected of her, and content knowing that this was to be her life, once and for all. And as Mrs. Soffel was becoming more and more dissatisfied with the status quo, SHE was becoming the rebellious teen and her daughter was becoming the stern mother who knew what was best. An interesting take on things!

oh the power of sex with a young piece of stuff (Mel Gibson) when you are a 35 year old woman with an unloving, ungrateful, old and ugly husband! i, also, chanced on this film when little other viewing was on. i could easily have changed channel,as the beginning of the film was uninspiring, but i was interested to see Mel Gibson in one of his early roles, in which he looks much younger than the 28 years he was at the time. i was surprised not to have seen the film, Mrs. Soffel, before, it has been around since 1984. Mel is not one of my favourite actors, but he does a good job with the role of a hot,charming guy, and believable performance in persuading Mrs. Soffel to help him escape prison. well, what a waste it would be to hang him! the film helped me to understand why so many women fall for and marry convicted murderers with life sentences. sexual chemistry can go right to a woman's head! i did wonder if reality kicked in for Kate Soffel (brilliantly played by Diane Keaton) when the sheriff's men started to chase and shoot at them! or are we to believe her life before was so dreadful she would rather die? ladies, the moral is, keep well away from temptation, before it is too late. the film had the makings of being a real weepy, and i was prepared to get the tissues out, but the script was not verbally in-depth enough to stir my heart. i wept buckets at Mel Gibson's performance in Braveheart. maybe if the ending had been more heart rendering this film would have had more attention. still, worth watching for two good acting performances. a film for the girls. female writer.

I'm not a big fan of Mel Gibson (his politics, especially), but I thought that his performance was the only thing that made this film bearable. It ran for just over an hour an a half, but it seemed like more than a week to me. I did not believe the love affair, even thought it is based on a true story; the wife must have had some other issues with her husband besides her illness (which was never defined in the movie.Get a pizza and watch a wrestling match!