Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, 1985)

The only thing preventing this biopic of Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen from achieving classical-Hollywood elegance is a typically 1980s case of elephantiasis. Cut it down by at least 45 minutes, especially the  romance with Robert Redford (pretty but dull and in desperate need of Blistex), and Pollack would've created a film to remember a year after seeing it. As it stands, it's shockingly watchable for such a project. The story derives much of its tension from a buy-now-pay-never sexuality one tends to associate with the 1960s. Klaus Maria Brandauer's Baron Bror von Blixen, Dinesen's faithless husband, is no more fickle than Redford's Denys Finch Hatton. He just provides a lot less gotta-be-me-babe justifications for his roaming and both men give Meryl Streep's Dinesen no peace. But now let's have Farah Aden's story.

Grade: B+