This was okay.
Meryl Streep stars as Karen Dinesen, a Danish woman who gets married to Bror, the Baron of Blixen, played by Klaus Maria Brandauer. The two plan to settle in Nairobi (East Africa) and set up a cattle farm and dairy business.
The film basically follows Karen and Bror’s relationship- with Bror away often (especially in the context of the film being in World War I) and him being a womanizer, the two drift further apart from one another. Eventually, Karen falls in love with Denys Finch Hatton, played by Robert Redford, a loner and game hunter, when they share a kiss at a New Year’s party. Denys’ independent nature makes him not want to be monogamous, driving an eventual split in the couple.
The film also places a big emphasis on the setting. Karen works closely with the indigenous Africans, setting up a school, helping provide them medical care, etc. I think really the only scene that I thought was ahead of its time was Denys accusing Karen of trying to turn the Kikuyu people into “little Englishmen”, basically trying to assimilate them even though they are not ignorant and have their own systems for reading and writing, even if it is not recorded on paper. Besides this scene though, I feel like the Kikuyu people are largely objectified in the film in favor of the White colonists.
The cinematography is absolutely the saving grace of the movie, it is so stunning, probably one of the best I’ve seen. The score is solid too. Streep gives a solid performance, however the main issue in this film is its slowness- it’s not even paced that horribly but there’s not a lot of interesting things going on. It tries to be a romance drama but there’s not that many dramatic things that happen and the erotic scenes could’ve easily been turned up (also Streep and Redford mostly lack chemistry). It’s pleasing to look at but that’s the only memorable thing about it. That said, I don’t think it’s horrible by any means, it’s decently solid. Just not worthy of being a Best Picture winner imo.
This was okay.
Meryl Streep stars as Karen Dinesen, a Danish woman who gets married to Bror, the Baron of Blixen, played by Klaus Maria Brandauer. The two plan to settle in Nairobi (East Africa) and set up a cattle farm and dairy business.
The film basically follows Karen and Bror’s relationship- with Bror away often (especially in the context of the film being in World War I) and him being a womanizer, the two drift further apart from one another. Eventually, Karen falls in love with Denys Finch Hatton, played by Robert Redford, a loner and game hunter, when they share a kiss at a New Year’s party. Denys’ independent nature makes him not want to be monogamous, driving an eventual split in the couple.
The film also places a big emphasis on the setting. Karen works closely with the indigenous Africans, setting up a school, helping provide them medical care, etc. I think really the only scene that I thought was ahead of its time was Denys accusing Karen of trying to turn the Kikuyu people into “little Englishmen”, basically trying to assimilate them even though they are not ignorant and have their own systems for reading and writing, even if it is not recorded on paper. Besides this scene though, I feel like the Kikuyu people are largely objectified in the film in favor of the White colonists.
The cinematography is absolutely the saving grace of the movie, it is so stunning, probably one of the best I’ve seen. The score is solid too. Streep gives a solid performance, however the main issue in this film is its slowness- it’s not even paced that horribly but there’s not a lot of interesting things going on. It tries to be a romance drama but there’s not that many dramatic things that happen and the erotic scenes could’ve easily been turned up (also Streep and Redford mostly lack chemistry). It’s pleasing to look at but that’s the only memorable thing about it. That said, I don’t think it’s horrible by any means, it’s decently solid. Just not worthy of being a Best Picture winner imo.
