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Closeup on a mailbox: Mr. and Mrs. Richard Johnson. Behind it, a dusty road leading through green fields, a minivan coming towards the camera and a pan over towards an isolated farmhouse. It's the present, and Michael and Carolyn have come to settle some issues regarding their mother's estate. It seems that their mother wanted her ashes scattered from a nearby covered bridge, which startles her two grown kids, particularly the seemingly very conservative and religious Michael. Turns out that Francesca had her reasons, as they find out when they open her cedar chest and turn to the diaries contained within...
Late summer 1965, and Francesca, an Iowa housewife in her mid-40s is seeing her husband and kids off to the Illinois State Fair. They'll be gone for 5 days and she'll have little to do but be bored in a different way than she usually is, until the arrival the next morning of a lost National Geographic photographer, Robert Kincaid (Clint Eastwood). Kincaid is on assignment to photograph the covered bridges that the county is famed for, and Francesca tries to tell him the way to the Roseman bridge but quickly decides to show him the way personally instead. As they drive towards the bridge and make small talk, they seem uneasy at first - but when Robert mentions Francesca's accent, and she finds that he has visited the town where she grew up in Italy, something starts to click. He reaches for a cigarette from the glove compartment and brushes her leg...later he picks flowers for her....they have the same favorite radio station, playing blues and jazz. Francesca starts to see something special, exotic....Robert sees someone warm and real, centered but more than the simple housewife that she's let herself become.
So begins four days of falling in love, four days of uncertainty, secretive glances, shyness turning to boldness, feelings long-buried in both reawakened and examined by two people smart enough to know right away how problematic an affair can be, yet willing to cast aside the doubts and damn the consequences. For now. The brilliance of The Bridges of Madison County isn't in any kind of originality, and it isn't in the bits of Waller's strained prose that occasionally leech through LaGravenese's generally excellent screenplay; it isn't in Streep's accent, which I know some have problems with but which I barely even notice at this point; and it isn't in the framing story, which again has grown on me over time but is certainly not all that interesting itself. What makes the film magical is the chemistry, the feeling of absolute rightness between the two leads, and the slow building towards an inevitable yet still heartbreaking decision.
Clint Eastwood certainly must have seemed an odd choice to take on this film, which he co-produced and co-wrote the elegiac "Doe Eyes" theme for in addition to directing and starring - even to me, a big fan already at the time, it seemed odd. Robert Redford seemed to be everybody's idea of Kincaid, and Steven Spielberg got mentioned often as a possible director, but I doubt many people will have problems after they see the film. Eastwood's Robert is a sensitive guy, but he's not schmaltzy, a poetic man but not pretentious about it, and a man clearly as unsure about the concept of love and the kind of risk he puts himself into as the married Francesca. He's a traveler and a loner, but deep down there's something missing, something we can feel almost from the beginning, something seen in the long gaze out the window near the end, and as he stands in the rain, waiting and hoping, at the film's emotional climax. And Eastwood the director keeps things from getting out of hand sentimentally until the last half hour, when both he and the audience know it's time for the tears to flow.
But as good as Clint is - and this is surely one of his two or three best performances - Meryl Streep is just a marvel here. Overlook the accent - whether you like it or not, it really isn't terribly important here - and you see a less mannered, more natural performance than she's given anywhere else. She mentions a couple of times in the making-of piece that accompanies the film on DVD that she was uncertain at first of Eastwood's quick shooting style, but it does wonders for her, giving a spontaneity that she really needed for the role. So much of the film relies on us believing that these are two hesitant, uncertain people with a yearning that at first has no direction - it can't seem studied, and it doesn't. And for a film that is set mostly in a kitchen and around barn-like red covered bridges, there's an excitement and intensity that can't be matched in most romances shot under the Eiffel Tower or in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. The technical aspects - Jack N. Green's lovely September-October photography and the wonderful Eastwood-chosen musical mixture of Johnny Hartman and Dinah Washington, among others - are just about perfect as well.
What the film ultimately builds to - and much of it is on Streep's shoulders - is a powerful examination of regret and loss and a determination that there are no perfect choices in life, only choices that involve different kinds of sacrifices. The film doesn't comment on the rightness or wrongness of her adultery, but Francesca lets her kids know that whatever she's done, she's not going to beat herself up over it - and neither should they. At the end, we know that whatever choice she made would have been difficult, would have involved hurting herself and others; there's no easy answer, only a bit of hope for the next generation, as they at least have come to accept and understand, and Francesca's ashes scatter on the wind....
NOTE ON THE DVD: The transfer on this 2008 "special edition" DVD is very nice and the aspect ratio correct - really essential to this tightly-shot film. Good if a little over-effusive commentary by cinematographer Jack Green and editor Joel Cox and a nice little making-of featurette.
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My Favorite Movie Of All Time
I loved this movie from the moment I finished watching it. The story was beautiful and the ending broke my heart in a good way. When I finished watching it on tv I had to have it on dvd so I could watch it whenever I wanted. My package arrived on time, the dvd was packaged nicely, and nothing was damaged.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2009
- Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2025
- Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2015
Top reviews from other countries
- blueskiesReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 25, 2025
A haunting charming love story.
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Ottimo atteggiamento del corriere ordine secondo le aspettative molto soddisfatta del prodottoReviewed in Italy on January 26, 2025
Magnifico
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Metin KilinReviewed in France on December 6, 2022
Un magnifique film d'amour.
Sur la route de Madison permet à Clint Eastwood de continuer à marquer de son empreinte le cinéma Américain, notamment dans un genre mélodramatique qui a fait la renommée d'Hollywood depuis ses débuts. Il se montre d'une incroyable justesse, Pour cela, il s'appuie aussi sur de formidables dialogues, écrits avec une incroyable justesse à l'image du moment où Clint évoque ce qu'on ne rencontre qu'une fois (et encore) dans sa vie. La construction du film est remarquable, de la rencontre à la finalité en passant par la découverte l'un de l'autre, avec des allers-retours dans le temps pour voir l'impact du passé sur le présent. Clint met aussi en avant ce qu'étaient les mœurs américaines, la difficulté de vivre en dehors des normes et l'importance du regard des autres, avec aussi des idées sur le temps, la vie, le couple et l'amour, à travers une intrigue mettant d'abord en avant la liberté et le bonheur. Il met en scène contre le scénario, vers une absolue sobriété. Par exemple, pendant la première partie du film, là où un cinéaste moins intelligent aurait sorti les violons, Eastwood choisit de se passer de musique. Il évite tout lyrisme, tout mouvement de caméra superflu, tous les clichés du mélodrame pour se concentrer sur son sujet : le passage puis l’arrêt brutal du temps. Le temps, compté au couple qui ne dispose que de quatre jours, a patiné les ponts de bois du titre original. Il faudra que les amants inscrivent leur amour dans ces symboles d’immuabilité pour compenser la brièveté de leur liaison. Simples lieux de passage, les ponts de Madison County deviennent l’endroit de la rencontre et les dépositaires éternels du désespoir de la séparation. Leur rupture consommée, les deux personnages arrêtent le cours de leurs vies pour s’enraciner dans ce décor unique. Le photographe y consacrera son unique recueil et la fermière exigera que ses cendres y soient dispersées. En allongeant chaque scène au maximum, jusqu’à son point de rupture, Eastwood arrive à rendre tactile le passage inéluctable des heures et la dilatation du temps par la force du souvenir.Metin KilinUn magnifique film d'amour.
Reviewed in France on December 6, 2022
Ces jours intenses de la passion, après lesquels il n’y a plus qu’à attendre la mort, Eastwood les situe en 1963 comme l’action d’Un Monde parfait. C’est l’année de l’assassinat de Kennedy et de l’intensification de l’engagement américain au Vietnam.
Probablement l’histoire d’amour la plus puissante jamais réalisée dans l’histoire du cinéma, tant elle possède la capacité d’émouvoir le plus grand nombre, tout en saisissant l’essence même du sentiment amoureux dans ce qu’il a de plus dévastateur. D’autant plus que le long métrage de Clint Eastwood, qui tient également un des deux rôles principaux, dresse en filigrane de cette romance impossible un immense portrait de femme, à la fois terriblement moderne et intimiste, d’une épouse au foyer tenant sa maisonnette aux côtés d’un mari certes affectueux, mais qui délaisse peu à peu sa vie conjugale et, de surcroît, la vie sociale et sexuelle de sa compagne. Il semble que la vie de Francesca soit devenu un pénitencier à ciel ouvert, comme si son esprit, tout ce qui faisait d’elle une femme unique avec de grandes aspirations, disparaissait de la réalité, comme si elle s’effaçait de son plein gré de ce simulacre informe qu’est le cocon familial, jusqu’à ce qu’il ne reste qu’un corps matériel n’ayant plus la capacité ni de s’exprimer, ni de se déplacer. Meryl Streep réitère une nouvelle fois sa démonstration de force filmique et trouve, dans le rôle extrêmement exigeant de Francesca Johnson. Un terrain d’expérimentation où elle peut traverser cette histoire, jouant sur une gamme exceptionnelle de sentiments contradictoires, avec une grâce et un charisme inégalables. A son image, on évoquera cette séquence, devenue mythique, de la station essence, où tombe une pluie torrentielle, exutoire psychologique inébranlable de nos deux protagonistes, qui se regardent une toute dernière fois, comme s’ils se connaissaient depuis toujours. Cet échange, d’une puissance évocatrice indicible, à l’orée du rêve fantasmatique.
Le cadre du film est superbe, Clint sublime les paysages, l'Iowa, les lieux qui sentent bon l'Amérique des années 50's, ou encore la nuit et les divers endroits qu'il va filmer (le bar, le pont ou l'intérieur de la maison). Cet aspect participe pleinement à l'atmosphère si atypique du film, naviguant entre charme, romantisme et mélancolie. Les deux comédiens principaux sont remarquables, et marquent le film par autant d'élégance que de spontanéité et de naturel, permettant de nous faire vivre cette histoire. Les instants de romantisme sont nombreux et toujours amenés naturellement. L'émotion qui en découle est forte, avec plusieurs séquences incroyables où l'on ne ressent que les sentiments des deux protagonistes, que ce soit dans le désir, l'attente, l'amour ou l'hésitation, et The Bridges of Madison County parvient à être bouleversant et déchirant. De simples moments s'apparentant à du quotidien prennent une dimension forte et magnifique sous la caméra de Clint, et plusieurs séquences en deviennent inoubliables, à l'image de la première danse ou de l'instant pluvieux. Et la musique composé par Lennie Niehaus ainsi que le thème principal renforce les émotions de plusieurs scènes et nous touchent en plein cœur. Et pour nous faire vibrer encore plus, en 1996, Meryl Streep obtient l'Oscar de la meilleure actrice pour son rôle, Vraiment mérité ! Cette lucidité et cette modestie contribuent à faire de ce long-métrage une œuvre bouleversante.
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