The Bridges of Madison County Reviews

The coolest, roughest man in America does a love story. Aaaww.

Still manages to be cool and pairs well with the perfection of Meryl Streep

It feels incredibly unfair that books more worthy of great film adaptations are left squander in lackluster Oscar bait, while a trashy, sudsy novel gets the A-list screen treatment. The Bridges of Madison County didn’t deserve such a good movie, but it got one. With the unlikely choice of Clint Eastwood as producer, director and star, The Bridges of Madison County manages to steer clear of overtly sentimentalized schmaltz and becomes one of the best women’s pictures/weepies since the days of Bette Davis. But no matter how hard Eastwood and Meryl Streep (as an Italian housewife married to an American), even their magnetic screen charisma, talent and erotic charge can’t save the implausibility and silliness of the general thrust the storyline takes. But the emotional starkness and ability for the actors to turn literary sap into an elegiac love story is something truly wondrous to behold.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since I have it on DVD, I thought I might as well check it again. Following his two great movies ‘Unforgiven’ and ‘A Perfect World’, with his next directing effort, Clint Eastwood displayed again that he was a major director we should all reckon with and he displayed that he also could direct basically anything. Indeed, apparently, even romantic features become masterpieces with him. It is something I always enjoyed with Eastwood as a director, his versatility and, if you give it a close look, you will notice that he has done movies in almost every single genre you could think of. This time around, it was basically a rather simple love story but the way it was told was so striking and pure at the same time, it was quite mind-blowing to behold. Of course, to have those two acting giants, Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood, playing this couple was also a masterstroke and they were both great in this. Indeed, together, they created a very touching and believable couple and one of the best romantic tales I have ever seen. With this feature, Clint Eastwood showed that he was actually one of the most sensitive directors out there and his understated directing style never worked better than here. Anyway, to conclude, I really loved this flick, it is one of the best romances I have seen and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

A truly romantic story of how the escapist fantasy high/feeling that initially results with falling in love must eventually be realistically dealt with, as the conditions & responsibilities of one's current situation come quickly creeping back in. This movie always reminds of something I heard once: that couples pairing up for the sake of true love is still a relatively young concept in the context of human history. That we as both a society & a species over-all, have not evolved enough yet to be able to deal & accept each other in a manner that would be considered as total unconditonal love (which is the only real love). And it is because of this that the world population has yet been unable to formulate an effective means of discussion that would truly begin a process of unity between it's racial, social & in this case, gender factions. Maybe, like this film depicts, this is why so many make decisions more for the sake of a security based on social & financial reasons than what is right for us on an emotional level. And as they impeded on Robert Kincaid (Eastwood) & Francesca Johnson (Streep), decisions which may impede on our ability to follow our hearts & therefore sway us, individually and socially, from a path that would lead to true love before it's too late.