Out of Africa

Rating

Director

Sydney Pollack

Screenplay

Kurt Luedtke (Books by Karen Blixen (credited under her pseudonym Isak Dinesen), Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller by Judith Thurman, Silence Will Speak by Errol Trzebinzki)

Length

150 min.

Starring

Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen, Malick Bowens, Joseph Thiaka, Stephen Kinyanjui, Michael Gough, Suzanna Hamilton

MPAA Rating

PG

Review

“I had a farm in Africa.” These words open a lush and beautiful film about one woman’s impact on the lives of those around her.

Out of Africa, based on the works of Isak Dension (the pseudonym of the lead character), is a showcase for Meryl Streep. With her Danish accent, Streep brings Karen Blixen vividly to life. Though the film is less a showcase for her talents and more a sweeping romantic epic, Streep keeps the film firmly in focus on her.

Robert Redford plays her chief romantic interest, the safari nut Denys Hatton. Redford’s never been a great actor. He fits into the role suitably but neither hinders nor exceeds expectations. He does what he’s intended to do: look dashing. His rival for Karen’s heart is her husband Baron Blixen (Klaus Maria Brandauer). He and Karen started as friends but when her initial romantic interest disengaged, Blixen agreed to give Karen her title of Baroness and lived as a couple for convenience and companionship, not for love.

Brandauer’s performance is quite good. The audience perceives that deep down he actually does love her even though it’s apparent, she doesn’t love him as anything more than a friend. Even when Karen decides she wants a child and the two resort to reproductive relations (never on screen), we still can’t believe that she loves him.

Sydney Pollack takes the reins of Out of Africa and lets the production run wild. Although cinematographer David Watkin delivers gorgeous vistas, the film often drifts for long periods without a place to go. Though it clocks in a half hour under three, the film feels much longer. There are some wonderful passages of dialogue, but we realize that much of it was written by Blixen herself, not by screenwriter Kurt Luedtke.

There are, however, many scenes that work significantly well. The first such scene comes when Karen has Denys and his fellow hunter Berkeley Cole (Michael Kitchen) over at the house while the Baron is gone. She tells a beautiful story to the two men that confirms for the audience her own boast of being an excellent storyteller was not mere vanity.

Ambitious and sweeping, Out of Africa feels every bit like the epics of David Lean but lacks a real heart. It takes us to an intriguing place filled with very interesting people; However, we spend so much time with characters that have little impact on the whole story that it’s as if we’re watching a filmed journal instead of a movie. It contributes to the film’s overall lack of direction.

Having won seven Academy Awards in 1985, one would expect Out of Africa to be an indelible love story that transcends the art form. Unfortunately, Out of Africa, though a decidedly good film, hardly belongs in history books. It is the kind of film that gave the Oscars a reputation for honoring long, sweeping epics that hardly anybody loved, but everyone respected. I respect it but certainly don’t adore it.

Review Written

December 26, 2006