I ponti di Madison County

A classic romantic movie. It has a "parting scene" between the couple that is so beautiful that it deserves a place in movie history. I will never forget the sight of Clint standing in the rain.

The book on which this film is based is a very thin volume, thin in every department. As a matter of fact I gave up after a few pages. The film is something else entirely. Meryl Streep plays an Italian living in rural America and she is out of this world. Her opening scenes at the breakfast table are staggeringly beautiful, it could have been a silent movie, we would've understood and live Francesca's story just by looking into Meryl's beautiful face. Every laugh, every move, every nuance is so Italian and so real that I went to look up her background to see if there was some Italian blood in her. Apparently not, but she reminded me of Anna Magnani and of my mother - she's Italian too, so I should know. Clint Eastwood's performance is tender, powerful and generous. I started going to the movies in the 70's and part of the fascination was to go and see movies with adults doing adult things, behaving and reacting to life the way adults do. "Five Easy Pieces" "Coming Home" "Sophie's Choice" and then the old great old ones from "Sullivan's Travels" to "All About Eve" As a side note I should inform the decision makers that on my second visit to the theater I took five kids with me, two 17 year old boys and three girls, 18, 16 and 16. They went back to see it a few days later with some of their contemporaries. The comment of one of the boys was: "It made me think of things I don't usually think about". He invited his mom to the movies to see "Bridges of Madison County" According to his mother, that was the first time ever, but, as it happens, not the last.

I only managed about two pages of the book before feeling physically ill by the trite dialogue, heavy dependence on cliche and ham fisted, adolescent romance prose style. So a film of the book 'The Bridges of Madison County' did not fill me with joy and pleasureable anticpation.

Yet Clint Eastwood has waved a magic wand, and worked wonders on the lack lustre source material, by pairing it down to produce a beautiful, warm film with only one real flaw (more on that later)

The film's overwhelming main strength is the casting of Meryl Streep. As Francesca she dissolves into the role - at times her gestures and dialogue seem so natural and unforced it is as if Eastwood had installed a fly-on-the-wall camera into the house of a real Iowan housewife. She lifts the film - which does centre on themes which could appear trite in the wrong hands - to the level of profound piece of art. Her selflessness and devotion to her family, and tortured sense of divided loyalites are presented so powerfully, and so plausibly, that the final scene in the car at the end (those who've seen it will recall immediately what I mean) pulls at your emotions so hard you'd swear it was you who was making the decision. I defy anyone with a pulse not to shed copious amounts of tears at this point --- you would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved on some level by this great, great performance.

Clint Eastwood provides good, solid support in the sense that he doesn't overact, and allows Meryl to become the heart of the film. This is a wise decision - part of the terrible weakness of the book was its dependence upon the inane thoughts and ramblings of Robert Kincaid. The film is beautifully directed, beautifully photograhed and beautifully scored - the radio tunes and the non-diegetic Bridges Love theme really enhance the romantic, lush tone and mood of the film.

My only problem is with the misguided decision to cast Francesca's older children and flash back periodically to them reading through their Mother's journals. The acting in these parts is mediocre at best, and they detract from the elegance and poignant mastery of Meryl Streep's central performance. The ashes scene at the end is - I feel - necessary for closure, but the rest of the scenes featuring the chldren should have been scrapped. The Francesca and Robert sections stand alone and require no interruption - these other segments cheapen the mastery of Meryl.

Above all, this is a film which (on paper) can be dismissed as pure soap opera. But it transcends these potentially trite themes to make a universal story of love, selflessness, devotion and choice, that speaks eloquently to the viewer, no matter what your age or experience. It's a truly heartbreaking tale of transitory experience and the power of memory. It will make you think about your own life, and about your closest family members and relationships.

And its finest quality has to be the magic of Meryl Streep who proves, yet again, why she is uniquely the best actress we have ever had. As Clint Eastwood said about casting this role: 'I only made one phonecall'. He knew as you will too - no other actress could have brought so much depth, warmth, beauty, charisma and humanity to this character. As a humble film lover, it's all I can do to applaud her from the depths of my heart. Bravo, Queen Meryl!

The family of Francesca Johnson (Meryl Streep) is dealing with her final wish after her death. She wants to be cremated and her ashes scattered from Roseman Bridge. They discover pictures taken in 1965 and her emotional affair with famed National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid (Clint Eastwood) whose ashes were scattered from the bridge. Her kids read her accounts of those four days. Her family went to the Illinois state fair. Robert was on assignment to film the bridge and stopped to ask directions from Italian war bride Francesca.

It's a simple bittersweet story. Director Clint Eastwood doesn't add anything overtly melodramatic. Meryl Streep is pitch-perfect. She's an expert on calibrating her accents but it's her every simple gesture that is so precise. She could teach an acting class from this movie. The story is basically laid out in the first ten minutes before either Streep or Eastwood is even on the screen. That is its most obvious drawback. It's not a movie of twists and mysteries. It is however a movie of emotional depth and her children are a big part of it.

I admire the likes of Woody Allen, Chaplin and Clint Eastwood (just to name a few), who possess(ed) the chops to write, direct AND act. They're complete artists, and I wish I could be like that (I'll be already too happy if I can ever achieve my life passion of writing and directing, though, since my acting would be less convincing than Owen Wilson playing Hamlet).

Even though Eastwood didn't write this (Richard LaGravenese did it beautifully, based on a novel by Robert James Waller), he does a good job in front of the camera while also directing this human encounter between a photographer (played by himself) and an Italian housewife (Meryl Streep, magnificent) in 1960s Iowa. Their four days together would change their lives forever.

The premise doesn't sound too original, but Eastwood wonderfully captures all the raw emotions between these people, who seem throughly genuine, alive, and passionate. Lennie Niehaus' beautiful music score helps enhance the romantic atmosphere, and the slow pace is never a bore since it's necessary to make you live those brief but special moments with them. From westerns to female boxers to jazz musicians to war dramas, Clint Eastwood knows how to tell a good story, and "The Bridges of Madison County" ranks among his best. 10/10.