Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good concept, poorly executed.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Somewhere between BADLANDS and DEAD MAN WALKING lies MRS. SOFFEL, a time-period melodrama about a warden's Christian wife, played by a wistful Diane Keaton, who, while handing out bibles on death row, gets enamored with a slick, handsome folk hero, a young Mel Gibson soon to be hanged with younger brother Matthew Modine.Whether it's true love, or the fact Gibson's character (who sounds strangely like Eric Roberts) has a way of conning naïve women, the underlying passion between the polar opposites, with the gray prison bars between them, is an engaging buildup to the inevitable escape and, during the final act the trio: Keaton, Gibson and Modine, ride a sled through the snowy winter with Terry O'Quinn's posse on their tail. The romantic aspect is somewhat thin – if Gibson resembled an everyman prisoner, would we have a film at all? But the direction, gorgeous cinematography and apt performances provide a spellbinding combination of style and substance, although there's more of the first than the latter.For More Interviews: http://cultfilmfreakreviews.blogspot.com

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.

This is a visually beautiful movie bringing the story along in with obvious and subtle references. The title character is a trapped woman. The 'noblesse oblige'of being the warden's wife coupled with her own frustrations and frailties makes her life intolerable. She loves her children; she hates her life. Here, she becomes intrigued by a prisoner in her husband's jail. He appeals to her imagination as well as her sensibility as a woman. She finds a soul-mate in their exchanges as she pretends to read-him-to-reform from bible passages. She flees with him and is willing to die with him to keep from returning to her unbearable life. This is based on a true story. But it is a telling of the story of women, most of whom until the last 25 years or so, had little choice but to marry and to identify themselves in terms of their husbands. Their identity was not their own; their choices had to be appropriate to their marriage station; they were judged by how well they maintained husband's well being and their children's achievements. While much has changed in women's lives, vestiges of the past still do exist. The references to "baking cookies" in the 2004 presidential campaign signals this. Mrs. Soffel represents the lives of women over time. She desperately seeks the love and freedom that her standing in life denies her. This has been a common women's theme.

This one was a nice surprise, I hadn't seen it when it first came out, so I rented it and enjoyed it thoroughly. Diane Keaton and Mel Gibson carry the day in this true tale of a wardens wife who falls for a prisoner. Matthew Modine does a fine job as Mel Gibsons brother, and the entire cast is fine. It's beautifully shot in Pittsburgh, and there is a languid quality about it that I found alluring. Well done all around.