A housewife and a freelance photographer embark on the relationship of a lifetime. Romantic drama starring Meryl Streep and director-producer-composer Clint Eastwood
The Bridges Of Madison County ought to be one of those romantic dramas that comes with a health warning on account of its high sugar content. That this adaptation of Robert James Waller‘s unspeakably bad bestseller is more than halfway watchable has everything to do with Clint Eastwood.

　　An unlikely choice as director and producer, it‘s thanks to Eastwood‘s relatively thin sentimental streak that the film doesn‘t fall headlong into a lagoon of schmaltz. Of course, the subject matter dictates that Madison County has its mushy moments, but weigh the finished film against what might have happened had first-choice director Steven Spielberg signed on and you‘ll see that we have a lot to thank Eastwood for. Clint is Robert Kincaid, the freelance photographer who‘s come to remote Madison County to snap the region‘s roofed bridges for ‘National Geographic‘. On the way to his assignment he bumps into Francesca (Streep), an Italian-American mother of two with whom he immediately strikes up a friendship. Then, as Francesca‘s grown-up children discover as they pour over their late mother‘s diaries, the unlikely pair embark on a short affair that will colour the rest of their lives.

　　The sort of story Mills & Boon might have scotched for being too sappy, it‘s only great professionalism that keeps Madison County afloat. The contemporary scenes in which adult offspring Annie Corley and Victor Slezak argue about their mother‘s infidelity are a particular delight, at their best recalling the short stories of Raymond Carver.

　　As for Eastwood and Streep, it‘s refreshing to see two late-in-life lovers who aren‘t desperate to disguise their age. That said, Eastwood‘s lack of eroticism and Streep‘s self-conscious performance make their‘s a peculiarly passionless romance. Still, compare their coupling to the fraught relationships of most romantic dramas and their measured maturity is something of a saving grace. So too is the producer-director‘s muted score, the subtlety of which many a more experienced composer would do well to consider.
Verdict
Okay for what it is, and far better than it could - and perhaps should - have been.