The Good: Well-shot, Redford's acting and character
The Bad: Pacing, Meryl Streep's character, Lack of chemistry
The Basics: Filmed beautifully and not lacking in the occasional charms, Out Of Africa is a film that relies too much on style over substance to entertain.
To be fair at the outset to Out Of Africa, the film's status as a winner of Best Picture has long been in dispute by me (from well before I saw it) for no other reason than my favorite film of all time was released the same year and was not even nominated for the illustrious honor. Yes, I'm part of the cadre of people who absolutely loved the film Brazil (reviewed here!) and the fact that it was not even nominated for Best Picture is a slap in the face to Terry Gilliam and genre films. That said, my critique of Out Of Africa, which I finally took in yesterday morning, has much more to do with the character elements and plot progression than it does anything outside the film itself.
Out Of Africa is based upon the writings of Karen Blixen and Judith Thurman, but this is a review of the film, not any of those writings (or any judgments on the real lives of either of those actual historical individuals). As such, my views are strictly limited to what is in the film (on DVD). Out Of Africa is not a bad film and I did enjoy the beginning of it a lot more than many of the other films I have seen of late. But the truth is, the movie drags and the characters are almost universally unlikable. What ultimately made me consider it an average film was that the two leads spend most of the movie without any real chemistry between them. Robert Redford is charismatic and wonderful as Denys and Meryl Streep has her moments as Karen Blixen, but on screen, the two have no real romantic chemistry. Redford holds his own at being intriguing and desirable better than he manages to be romantic or interesting as a foil opposite Streep. And while the movie isn't boring, it is a film very much mired in Africa and the protagonist is largely unlikable.
Karen moves to Kenya to be married to the Baron Blixen and en route, her train is stopped so an ivory hunter, Denys may load his wares onto the train. Karen and Denys exchange a few words, but the train soon gets going again and Denys disappears into the grasslands. Karen and Blixen marry and soon thereafter, Denys and his hunting companion, Berkeley Cole, show up. As Karen and Blixen begin using the indigenous people to plant their coffee crops (no one had ever tried to grow coffee in Kenya before), Cole and Denys spend time hunting and visiting the plantation the Blixens have built. Soon, though, Baron Blixen away more frequently and Cole and Denys stop by to be entertained by her while he is away. When war breaks out and the European colonial forces (primarily British and German) do battle in north Africa, Karen is left alone, longing for her husband.
But soon, the marriage goes sour as Karen contracts syphilis from Blixen and has to return to Denmark for treatment. She returns to Kenya where she takes on the burden of running the plantation on her own. As Blixen begins outright and open affairs on her, Karen tries to manage the labor, deal with the banks, educate the young Kenyans and keep herself satisfied. Denys makes the latter possible and her affair with him lasts until she tries to tie him down. Circumstances in Africa and with Denys force to her to reconsider her life choices and her time in Africa comes to an abrupt end.
I enjoy a wide array of films, but by and large my favorite movies are all dramas. Having seen so many dramas, there are very few things that come up in most dramas that leave me surprised. Out Of Africa has the distinction of having managed to surprise me with the abrupt right turn it takes in the last ten minutes. Unfortunately, it has pretty much the same abruptness as "And they all fell into a pit and died" did when I was a kid and had to put the battlefields of toys I had out away when called abruptly to dinner. There is a distinct lack of continuity and satisfaction in the resolution to Out Of Africa.
What it does have, though, is a strong sense of realism in its last few minutes. Making far more sense than a woman letting a man publicly cheat on her without divorcing his sorry butt, the end to Out Of Africa comes with an abruptness that many lives contain. Even so, the end is hardly satisfying and it comes after hours of sitting through an unsatisfying film.
I blame this on Karen Blixen. I'm not blaming the real Karen Blixen, but Karen Blixen as a fictional character in the film Out Of Africa is hardly an interesting subject of a film. She sits, she whines in long, pedantic voice-overs, and she tries to get the local tribal leader to send the kids of the village to the school. Gold star for the last part and her trying to get the locals healthcare, but these events are minor incidents in between long scenes of Karen leading a caravan of supplies to the menfolk or her telling stories to the visiting men. More often than not, Karen is pretentious, bored and boring.
Moreover, Karen is part of a whole method of storytelling that seems to follow the "two wrongs make it right" philosophy that has become so prevalent in our society. Karen's affair is no more justified than her husband's many affairs. I'm not knocking her for having the affair with Denys - though Out Of Africa gets into the most banal element of common "chick flick" dialogue as Karen tries to get Denys to commit to her - as much as I am acknowledging that it makes her no better than her husband. The Baron Blixen is almost universally characterized as a scoundrel and part of that comes from his womanizing ways. So why Karen doesn't divorce him and then proceed with her own affairs is troublesome.
Conversely, Robert Redford is wonderful, though director Sydney Pollack does not try to get him to commit to an English accent for the role of Denys. In fact, early in the film, I suspected Denys and Cole (whom Karen is more instantly outwardly infatuated with) were Australian. After Redford drops the attempt at an accent, he is charismatic and holds the interest of the viewers simply by the way he holds himself on screen and the casual way he delivers some of the movie's best lines.
On DVD, Out Of Africa has a full-length commentary with director Sydney Pollack that is informative and fairly entertaining. There is also a documentary on filming the movie and the challenges of making the books into a movie. As well, there is the original theatrical trailer for Out Of Africa.
Out Of Africa is a marvel when it comes to the cinematography, including some wonderful scenes that include hosts of African wildlife. This makes the setting almost like another character in the film and while it is a wonderful setting, it cannot make up for the unlikable protagonist. As a result, Out Of Africa ends up as a very average love story between two people who are proximate more than sharing a genuine bond.
[As a winner of the Best Picture Oscar, this film is part of W.L.'s Best Picture Project, available here! Please check it out!]
For other beautifully-shot films, please check out:
Disney Nature's Oceans
Orlando
The Red Violin
6.5/10
For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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