The Bridges Of Madison County Details

Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this romantic drama based on Robert James Waller's bestseller, which is superbly adapted by Richard LaGravenese (screenwriter of Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King). Eastwood plays National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid, a sensitive loner drawn into an intense love affair with rancher's wife Francesca Johnson (Meryl Streep) when he arrives in Iowa to take pictures of Madison County's unique covered bridges. Told in flashback after Francesca's death, when her grown-up children discover a diary and realise how deeply affected their mother was by the experience, Eastwood's moving film avoids easy sentimentality in favour of a more complex exploration of family responsibility, marital fidelity and self denial. Beautifully photographed and directed with an intimate maturity, the film reveals its characters in an unhurried way, thus making the audience accomplices in the unfolding liaison. Eastwood's acting is competent, but it's the impeccably accented Streep who really shines and she received yet another Oscar nomination. Not many screen romances are created with the necessary skill to challenge perceptions and beliefs, and very few film adaptations outshine the book they are based on, but this is a rare exception.

Eastwood's restraint, both as actor and director, adds a little rigour to a swooningly sentimental best-seller, and Meryl Streep surprisingly finds some truth in her character; but for all their efforts, it is a thin thing.