The recent death of Robert James Waller prompted me to check out the one screen adaptation of his best-known novel. It's unlikely that I'd ever have seen it otherwise: While it has more fans than haters, people have likened it to popular movies I deemed both dull and depraved—a deadly combination. It wouldn't be the first popular Clint Eastwood-directed movie I disliked either. And Meryl Streep has the odd distinction of very few great films despite consistently great performances. Nevertheless, my curiosity got the better of me.
After the death of Francesca (Streep), her adult children, Carolyn (Annie Corley) and Michael (Victor Slezak), learn that her posthumous wish deviates from the assumed plan to bury her next to late husband Richard (Jim Haynie). They are equally shocked at her reason: She wants to join her paramour from 1965, Robert (Eastwood). Details pour forth in a letter to them, and we're treated mostly to flashbacks to four days when Richard was away, starting with Robert's outsider status in rural Iowa prompting Francesca to offer some hospitality. He's a National Geographic photographer, see, hoping to snapshot the titular bridges....
Let me get this out of the way: I hate stories that glorify infidelity. My favorite adultery movie is Fatal Attraction. I especially hate it when the cheated-on party hasn't done anything rotten to our knowledge, as in this case: Richard treats Francesca nicely; she's merely bored with her life in that setting. (This could be taken as a refutation of Field of Dreams likening Iowa to Heaven.) Love may conquer all, but it sure doesn't justify all.
For that reason alone, TBoMC could never garner a high score from me. Mercifully, I soon got the impression that we weren't supposed to love the plot or moral in particular. It doesn't really try to innovate or surprise; it just wants to handle its elements with skill. So I decided to base my verdict on technical and artistic merits as much as its spiritual dreck.
The acting? I'm undecided on how deserved Streep's esteem is, but she does deliver (and I can add Italian to the list of accents I've heard from her). Also, I am not among those who dismiss Eastwood as a weak actor; he always does enough not to break my suspension of disbelief. It is interesting to watch the chemistry between these two, partly because neither is your typical Hollywood hottie. Streep looks pretty much like a typical middle-aged housewife, tho she has her attractive moments. Eastwood is just beginning to turn into a rather ugly old man, but the way he carries himself exudes a spry confidence, masculine yet gentle.
I can believe the amount of time it takes for the two to fall for each other. Apparently, what first draws Francesca to Robert is his freedom of impulsiveness. This is someone who reports having left a train before his scheduled stop because the scenery wowed him. Of course, that's exactly the sort who won't settle down for long, so Francesca soon suspects she made a mistake. She won't run off with him, and the area is unkind to known homewreckers. Was it worth cutting loose for one long weekend, with memories to keep secret for the rest of her life?
As for Robert, I don't entirely believe his insistent claim to feel differently about Francesca compared to his past flings...until he wills his stuff to her. So what does stand out about her? I might know the answer if I watched again, but I won't.
Francesca's letter expresses a hope that Carolyn and Michael will forgive if not thank Robert. Michael is the less tolerant of the two, attributing worse traits to Robert than are in evidence and wishing to kill him (too late). Even late in the movie, he needs to take a break in disgust. But at the very least, he gets convinced that his mom was lucid when amending her will, and he makes a point to become more satisfying to his wife. Carolyn, meanwhile, relates to her mom's marital ennui and decides to talk to her husband about it; I'd hope they don't divorce.
In the end, I'm a bit like Michael: As much as I cringed at the makeout scenes, I could more or less respect the filmmaking. It doesn't make the upper half of my viewings, but I did abandon my readiness to condemn. It didn't exactly bore me, tho it probably would have in earlier adulthood. While I won't recommend it, neither do I recommend against it. You might get a lot out of it.
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