The Bridges of Madison County: Critic Reviews

Limited by the vapidity of this material while he trims its excesses with the requisite machete, Mr. Eastwood locates a moving, elegiac love story at the heart of Mr. Waller's self-congratulatory overkill.

The gap between touchy-feely and touching isn't easy to span, so credit judicious pruning on the one hand and a beefed-up script on the other for getting perhaps the best possible movie out of Robert James Waller's The Bridges of Madison County.

I've seen the movie twice now and was even more involved the second time, because I was able to pay more attention to the nuances of voice and gesture.

Given the intelligent restraint of the treatment, this is about as fine an adaptation of this material as one could hope for...

The Bridges of Madison County is a beautiful film, not only in the way it was photographed, but for the manner through which the characters are revealed to us.

Madison County is Eastwood's gift to women: to Francesca, to all the girls he's loved before -- and to Streep, who alchemizes literary mawkishness into intelligent movie passion.

Screenwriter LaGravenese ought to get the Croix de Guerre for doing battle with Waller's fatuous prose and paring Bridges down to its most appealing fantasy romance essence.

An unlikely choice as director and producer, it's thanks to Eastwood's relatively thin sentimental streak that the film doesn't fall headlong into a lagoon of schmaltz.

Little happens here apart from a long, slow buildup to sentimentalized coitus, but there's no denying the sheer screen presence of these two 500-lb. gorillas of pop culture.

Perhaps the only time in history a movie was far better than its source material

Whether Meryl Streep deserved an Oscar nomination may be debatable, but what's beyond dispute is that scripter Richard LaGravenese and director Clint Eastwood have actually made a better, more enjoyable film than the schmaltzy literary source.

...an old-fashioned love story for adults.

In Eastwood's hands, it seems, even divorce can be more romantic than orgasms under the right circumstances.

Immaculately performed, and assembled with wit and sensitivity, this is one of the most satisfying weepies in years.

This didn't pain me anywhere near as much as I thought it would. A money-grab, surely, and Clint's weird bush story is very awkward, but generally charming enough for a date with a boring person.

Atmospheric love story with Eastwood and Streep in great form.

Eastwood can do no wrong in my eyes ... but he came dangerously close with this one.

Better than the book.

Outstanding drama. Actually makes a case for adultery. You really feel for them and get sucked into this quiet world.

The film seems to drag on a little too long and is slow moving in spots, but it will certainly jerk more than a few tears from audiences around the country.