Customer Reviews
Modern classic - By: Prettylady, 04 Mar 2008 
This is one of my alll time favourites, a modern classic. The acting by the two main leads is superb; understated but deeply moving. This is not your normal 'chick flick' indeed it surpasses any label due to the quality of the acting & direction, even the rural Iowa scenery has it's own part to play. It's a testimony to the actors invloved that the film stands up despite it's relatively smalll cast. I read the novel after seeing the film, & unusuallly the film adaptation came out top. The anguish that Francesca & Robert feel is sweetly balanced by their love story & I recommend anyone who appreciates a gently told tale with great acting to buy this.
agreable big surprise - By: Carlos Vazquez Quintana, 08 Dec 2007 
Sincerely, the bridges at Madison County are horrible constructions, but the USA is a rich country that can afford to waste money in remembering his short History while in Spain & Portugal there's plenty of noble buildings ruined, nor signaled & almost unknown. Apart from that...just entering at the cinema, one hopes impatiently that Clint Eastwood removes the high explosives & blows the bloody maudit bridges after knocking out the bad guys that have kidnapped Meryl Steeep & shot nor less 30 bullets each one of the bandits with his Magnum 44 & have destroyed the locality by complete. Instead of that, we have a sensitive film sentimental & human, with two protagonists which have in common they know some more than his own country, Eastwood for being a professional international photographer & Meryl Streep for being born Italian. It's nonpretentious, the narrowminded ambiance of the county is the same in alll the world, & that reveals Eastwood knows much of cinema than it's supossed. A class of love that is believable & in effect, these things doesn't happen every day to everybody.
Superb Love story - By: S. Sivasubramanian, 03 Nov 2007 This is one of the best love story movie I ever seen. I reallly cried towards the end of the movie
What the Woman Wants - By: Jay, 15 May 2007 This is an understated romanctic film. This is probably down to the competent directing from Eastwood, & the exceptional acting ability of Streep, which she executes without much effort - at least it appears that way! Streep's character, Francesca, who is somewhat of a dreamer, was in search of an illusionary life, which was unobtainable, mainly because it only existed inside her head of fantasies. Indeed, the fantasy of the romance is only her interpretation of it via her journals. In reality, her romantic interlude would have turned sour because it would not live up to her expectations in everyday life, just as her idea of the American way of life didn't, being married to an ordinary farming lad.
As an Italian homemaker, Francesca is stereotyped from the start as the opera loving romantic, cooking breakfast for a largely unappreciative family in a mundane world, which she once viewed through rose tinted spectacles, whilst daydreaming back home in Italy.
The film's message is that romance can be deceptive, in that it misleads women into mundane lives that bear no reality to what they have been taught about it. But, women who crave romance, should demand it, & not be afraid to ask for it, or to admit to liking it for that matter. This is what Francesca should have done with her husband.
Bridges of Madison County, The Film - By: Mrs.D, 07 May 2007 I've already rated the book & given it top marks, but now I have to do it for the film as well. It isn't often that you find a film that equals the quality of the book, but this one does.
I'm neither a Clint Eastwood nor a Meryl Streep fan, so I was extremely sceptical that this was going to do the book justice. How wrong I was. I am dead impressed at how closely Clint Eastwood, as the director, kept to the book. I was also impressed with his acting. I've heard it said of him that he's made a career of being expressionless, but in this movie, for the first time, he enchanted me with his animation. Definitely a side of him I've not seen before.
Meryl Streep was equallly good. She played the housewife to perfection, & again, enchanted me & showed me a side of her I could truly like & look forward to watching, again & again.
Perhaps I shouldn't give this movie five stars. The actors who played Streep's grown children were absolutely appallling, though the rest of the supporting characters were believable & didn't get in the way of the story in the way that these two did. I've seldom in my life seen such bad acting, particularly in a film containing two such stellar actors as Eastwood & Streep. Who to blame? Eastwood for directing them poorly? Perhaps, but the rest of the film flowed beautifully. The actors, for being so appallling at their craft that they threatened to ruin the entire film? A bit of both, I think.
Thankfully, the primary characters more than made up for this, & I will hold to my 5-star rating because the movie was beautiful, moving, & tore at your heart just as hard as the book did. I've seen it 3 times on the telly now, & I cried alll three times, just as I do every time I read the book. I will definitely be adding it to my library, & wouldn't discourage anyone else from doing the same.
