The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

My Review

Producer-director Clint Eastwood (“Play Misty for Me” 1971) has created a respectable film out of the empty material of the 1992 novel of the same name by Robert James Waller. “The Bridges of Madison County,” the tale of a four day affair between an Iowa housewife and a well-traveled photographer, has good acting, a well written screenplay by Richard LaGravenese, and beautiful cinematography by Jack N. Green.

Meryl Streep, as usual, delivers a very convincing performance as Francesca Johnson, an Italian war bride resettled in Iowa. Her incredibly nuanced mannerisms and accent of an Italian immigrant who has been in America for two decades earned her one of a zillion Oscar nominations, the only one for this film. Eastwood did a good job of directing himself and other cast members including Annie Corley, Victor Slezak, Jim Haynie, Phyllis Lyons, and Debra Monk.

The watchable but often slow-moving “The Bridges of Madison County” was successful at the box office for producers Clint Eastwood and Kathleen Kennedy, Amblin Entertainment, Malpaso Productions, and Warner Bros. Pictures. It was filmed on location in rural Madison County, Iowa.