meryl streep won best actress for give a penetrating and complex portrayal of a woman whose guilt make her postwar life a walking death . she be incredibly intense and occasionally inappropriately so and but always memorable . but and that intensity in combination with kevin kline overplaying be hard to take at time . add in the slow pacing and you have an unpleasant and albeit well craft and movie watching experience . peter mcnichol do his best to provide some irony and insight and and josef sommer superb narration help move thing on a bit . if you can stick with it and you will be reward by the unforgettable denouement . it work a art much good than it work a entertainment .