Out of Africa (1985)

Story of a Danish Duchesses (Meryl Streep, displaying her proclivity for accents) sojourn in colonial Africa, and romance with a handsome American game hunter (Robert Redford). This movie is heavily echoed in the later drama The English Patent, so much so I almost felt that I had seen it before, what with a setting in Africa at the beginning of a world war, an unhappy marriage of ‘friends’, an independent women, a charming stranger, a flight on a biplane and an untimely death. A lot of people have been profoundly effected by this story’s romance, and though I’m disposed to be amiable to the type of characters involved, it just didn’t do it for. I didn’t completely buy Redford and Streep together, and felt like I’d seen most of the driving concepts in the film presented better in the works of David Lean and Sir. Richard Attenbourgh. Recognizing its quality, but not particularly taking to it, I give the film a three out of five.