The Bridges of Madison County

The Bridges of Madison County (1995) is about a four day affair, and those four days determine a woman's whole life. Francesca lives on a farm in Iowa. Her family goes to the fair and she is alone for four days. A magazine photographer knocks at her door, looking for the covered bridges in the county. Four days later he leaves. The frame is this: after Francesca dies her children find her notebooks and read them. We learn the story as they do, and their reaction is the film's second subject. Robert James Waller's novel sold enormously in the nineties and was mocked in literary circles. That is the most surprising thing here: a serious film came out of a ridiculed book, and Meryl Streep was nominated for an Oscar. Eastwood directed and starred, playing the opposite of the usual Eastwood character: calm, courteous, carrying no threat at all. The best scene is at a junction. Nothing is said, nothing happens, and the entire story is decided there. The long kitchen conversations build the texture; this is not a film in a hurry. It runs 135 minutes. Good for: adult love stories, acting, and quiet films. Less good for: the pace is very slow, little happens, and the subject is an affair.