Meryl Streep received her 6th oscar nomination for playing Karen Blixen, a Dutch woman who travels to Africa to marry her best friend (Klaus Maria Brandauer) and becomes the owner of a coffee farm. Yet, she soon falls in love with an explorer named Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford).
Out Of Africa is a beautiful, intelligent film. I see why it won so many Oscars due to the fact that it tells an excellent story along with gorgeous visuals. However, I find the film a little underwhelming and un -engaging. It feels like it never went deep enough into the plot and I found the film hard to follow because I couldn't understand the accents at times.
But it's all brought together by Meryl Streep, one of the best actresses ever. She plays Karen, as a very cold woman who doesn't always show her emotions. Yet unlike her fellow nominee Anne Bancroft, she knew how to add more depth to the character and play her facets in a convincing and careful way. She makes Karen easily the most interesting character in the film, and I always felt she was great whenever she was on screen. Her accent takes some time getting used to, but overall, it is wonderful and has great flavor.
As for her chemistry with Robert Redford, I think Sage was right when she said he was miscast. He is great-LOOKING for the part, but his acting is completely wooden. Not to mention his character is a complete cliche. But Meryl makes us believe that she loves him.We can feel her tenderness and love of being with him. she shows her confliction with him very well. The results are less then statisfying because of him, but Meryl makes the best of it, which is pretty damn fantastic.
However, I don't fully love Streep here. She is great, but the film's problems bring her down a bit. Such as the exploration of her character in great detail and her lack of emotion in a crucial scene towards the end. yet none of these are problems are Meryl's and she still delivers a rich, terrific performance that gets
5 comments:
I thought she was fine but her performance became all that interesting. I will admit she is not helped at all by Robert Redford who is miscast in both being believable in terms of nationality, and particularly in being this uncontrollable wild man his character is suppose to be which Redford never is.
Great review!
Haven't seen this performance yet but it sounds like an interesting one and a great film :) D
Louis: Yeah, I guess that's true. I think she's terrific though. A VERY strong four.
Nues20: Thanks! It is certainly interesting, though the film sometimes gets in her way.
A very lovely performance. It may be standard Meryl Streep but that's obviously a very good thing.
Yep! Completely agree!!!
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