Here we have a story that looks quite different from a man named Robert Kincaid, a photographer on a mission to shoot historic bridges in Madison County. It seems that the job will turn out exactly where there will be a housewife, Francesca Johnson, and maybe there will be a strong four-day relationship that will change radically. It may be quite different where a robot is playing a new mission and a different adventure.
The result, if rather thin and certainly far from a masterpiece, is nevertheless quite lovely. This affecting little film is easily one of Eastwood's best efforts as a director.
The strength of Eastwood's Bridges is in its patience, and how it lets the love story develop from start to finish, even though the audience knows from the beginning the broad strokes of what's going to happen.
Bridges is an admirable achievement, one that probably does more to reposition its maker as someone who can carry a movie without carrying a gun than as the director/star of a Love Story for the Loving Care set.
The movie, thank goodness, is better than the book. What's more surprising is that The Bridges of Madison County is an accomplished piece of moviemaking.
Despite all his craft and sincerity, [Eastwood] and screenwriter Richard LaGravenese can't quite turn Robert James Waller's cardboard best-seller into flesh and bone.
Beautifully photographed and directed with an intimate maturity, the film reveals its characters in an unhurried way, thus making the audience accomplices in the unfolding liaison.
Eastwood's Bridges has the energy and spontaneity of a picture that was shot quickly. And that serves the material well, because it removes the solemnity that could stiffle a modern classic.