Out of Africa

Once again, Streep adds a third dimension to a two-dimensional medium; once again she brings humanity and intelligence to a remarkable portrait that must be added to what has become a gallery of such portraits.

Sydney Pollack's glorious and stirring Out of Africa is a big-screen epic in the very best sense.

The beauty of Out of Africa, From the very opening shots, is rhapsodic and illustrative rather than dramatic. This large-scale adaptation of Isak Dinesen's marvelous memoir never catches fire.

The movie could probably be shorter, but I didn't wish it so.

There comes a time in movie addicts' lives when their souls cry out for the kind of film that can fill the screen with magnificent vistas, grand passions and charismatic actors. That's why the arrival of Out of Africa is cause for cheering.

The most-remembered moments of Out of Africa are the travelogue sequences, which is not what the book or the author are all about.

Unfortunately, its memoir story is enormously dull and not even Meryl Streep's delicate performance can prevent the love affair from plummeting into predictable plains. [Full review in Spanish]

A disjointed, lumpen snoozer that improves in its final half but completely whiffs the ending. It's also one of Meryl Streep's least interesting and most perfunctorily Oscar-nominated performances.

There are many who consider Out of Africa a weak Best Picture Oscar winner, but I vehemently disagree.

As far as romance goes, Out of Africa runs the full gamut of archetypal themes. While it often induces a yawn, it is gorgeous to look at.