The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

Imagine Dragons Perform 'Whatever It Takes' at Writers Strike Picket Line In Robert, whose long hair, sandals and silver bracelet get him branded a hippie in rural America, she finds a kindred spirit. Francesca has felt like an alien since her husband brought her home 20 years earlier. Sharing a smoke and conversation, they take measure of each other with charming awkwardness. Her family is off for a week at a state fair, so when the lost Robert asks directions to Roseman Bridge, she impulsively offers to go with him. Still, her performance steadily deepens, drawing us close to a woman whose life isn’t “what I dreamed about as a girl.”įrancesca feels “something jump inside” when the stranger with the Nikon rides up in his truck on an August day in 1965. While Eastwood digs inside himself for authenticity, Streep must first fuss with surface detail. Streep’s technique is expert but distracting. She uses a dark wig, added pounds and an Italian accent – Anna Magnani lite – to play Francesca, the 45-year-old war bride raising two kids in Iowa with her dull, decent husband, Richard (Jim Haynie). So does Meryl Streep, on record as disliking the book.

Characters at emotional risk bring out the best in Eastwood as an actor ( Unforgiven, Tightrope, In the Line of Fire), and under the towering heap of hokum that is Bridges, he still finds a heartbeat. Waller pumps up Robert as the “last cowboy,” a former combat Marine who roams the world and leaves women squealing: “You’re the best, Robert, no competition, nobody even close.” Eastwood wisely brushes past the blather to focus on the cowboy at sunset, as much a relic of the romantic past as the covered bridges of Madison County, Iowa, that National Geographic has sent Robert to photograph. It’s an impossible role – a male fantasy cooked up by a preening peacock – yet Eastwood lends the character a wellspring of humor and humanity.

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller