OUT OF AFRICA (1985) ***1/2 It won a lot of Oscars and critics still love to figure out what's wrong with it-it makes them look smart, they think. A principle criticism is, of course, that Robert Redford is supposed to be a British guy but he has a Utah accent and is even otherwise obviously American. True enough, but he also doesn't look as much like a boll weevil as the British guy he's portraying did either. Did they want a boll-weevil lookin' guy? Surely not. It's also true that Redford slightly butchers some extraordinary lines, but he delivers an understated brilliance on others. Who else could they have got? Redford plays the hero (yes, he's always Sundance but it's a demanding role that you have to be born into and he's damn good at it) about as well as anyone of his generation and I have yet to hear a credible British upper crust out of Warren Beatty or Paul Newman. The accent issue is only exasperated by the true fact that Meryl Streep sounds exactly as she should as the Danish baronness literary genius Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen). Ok so you start with Redford and Streep being two really cool people in a situation in which it's impossible not to have an adventure. What's wrong with that? You add in spectacular scenery, great shots (the Masai and the lion shooting are my personal favorites, even though I love lions), a great real story by a great real storyteller (and brilliantly portrayed storytelling), a genuine sense of romance and paradise lost, the politics of individualism, the sanctity of moments, sex, alcohol, oxen, Mozart...it's not too much and it's not perfect, but it's great cinema. Malick Bowens demonstrates that simple religion is the best. I have yet to see a movie where a marriage of convenience (or for title) works out, so why do people keep doing it? "Look! They've finally made a machine that's really worthwhile!"
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