A Bridge Too Far For Me (The Bridges of Madison County (DVD))

Member Name: BizzyB

Product:	The Bridges of Madison County (DVD)
Date:	14/02/02 (406 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nicely shot, Change from the more youthful driven romance films

Disadvantages: Far too long, see opinion

Time to fly in the face of popular opinion and voice the fact I didn't enjoy the Bridges of Madison County, surely sacrilege in the eyes of the Oprah generation.

I first saw this film, made 1995, on the television and no doubt it will now do the full circle of television seasons.

Clint Eastwood both stars and directs this film based on the book by Robert James Waller which I have not read nor feel compelled to now. His leading lady is Hollywood stalwart Meryl Streep.

Story Overview
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Based in Iowa in 1965 Streep plays Francesca Johnson, an Italian who came to the states when she met an American soldier in her homeland. The Johnsons live in an isolated and rural area of Iowa. It is soon made clear that theirs is a life of structure which can be at times claustrophobic. We join Francesca as she is left in the solitude of her home whilst her husband and children go on a trip to the state fair which will see them from home for over four days.

Robert Kincaid (Eastwood) finds himself lost in Iowa and happens upon the Johnsons farm. Kincaid is a photojournalist, in Iowa to do a feature on the wooden bridges of the area.

What follows is the story of the growing closeness of Francesca and Robert, and the dilemma Francesca finds herself in where she reflects on the way her life has turned out and the disappointment she has endured.

The relationship is told in part in modern day after Francesca's children find her diaries after her death and read of their mothers intense experiences throughout those four days with Robert. These experiences are at once seen to disturb the now adult children in both its effect on their impression of their mother and its reflection on their own lives.

The Performance
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I am no great fan of Meryl Streep who I feel has always been trapped in her own success at playing the melodrama character and so
I feel we often see her in the same role only distinguished by the accent. As the Italian born mother once again Streep wheels out an accent which is remarkably confused at times as she often falls into what I hear as an Afrikaans accent. This aside the dourness of her character cannot be left at her feet alone. The script hardly allows her to shine.

Clint Eastwood's character of Robert Kinaid is meant to be a breath of fresh air into Francesca's life. He is portrayed as a worldly man, there is the under lying sense he has a touch of the Casanovas about him. Unfortunately I was never truly won over with Eastwood's performance. I did not feel convinced that he oozed worldly knowledge or charisma. Whilst you'd accept someone with such a colourful life to be laid-back he was bordering on horizontal.

My Impression of the Film
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The resulting love affair I found remarkably unconvincing. The words from Francesca's journal tell us that Robert brought a new sense of life and vibrancy to her as she mulled over how mundane life had become, but this is portrayed. In fact it comes across as one of the dullest romances of screen history. The film is often hailed for being such an intimate portrait of love but this is the only aspect the film concentrates on. It portrays the love in a very heavy and in-depth way yet the words of Francesca suggest to me that it was a love that bred an energy she had lost over the years and so it is as if the words and the action do not match. I am not suggesting the characters are portrayed as lovesick teenagers, heaven forbid, but lets give the middle aged a break and let them have a bit more vibrant passion!

The switch to the modern day setting of her children reading her diaries is a bit heavy handed to say the least and is certainly the weakest part of the film.

Location wise it is beautifully shot though the question rises, wh
ere are all the bridges? We only ever seem to visit the same one!

At two and a quarter hours I found the film really dragged in places which detracted from the many truly emotional times which where engulfed by this constant pounding of the heart strings. For me, it came across as a film which tries too hard to convey its message instead of letting the emotion flow and present itself. Because of the switch to modern day we know how the story basically unfolds before we are told and so much of the anticipation is lost.

As such I found it a really difficult film to watch and found myself getting up and doing bits of housework! And this for me really summed up the film. It was too maudlin to watch outright but was a great film to watch with 75% of your concentration whilst you do something else. It should certainly be scheduled during the flu season as it is one of those films you can lay out on the sofa and drift in and out of sleep and not get lost in the storyline.

This film is certainly one that will come down to personal preference combined with the mood you are in. If you do not enjoy the overly sentimental it will hold very little for you. But if you like your look at relationships deeply intense this could be the film for you.

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