The Bridges of Madison County is a romantic masterpiece, but it's so incredibly heart wrenching, most people only want to see it once. I have a DVD copy in my collection, but the cellophane is still on it. It's a wonderful movie in every facet, and some-including yours truly-name it as legendary Meryl Streep's finest performance. Clint Eastwood wears two hats, and his thoughtful and sensitive directing makes it seem like you're watching someone's life unfold, rather than going to the movies.

Richard LaGravenese's screenplay brings an entirely new meaning to the story, and if you run out and buy a copy of the original novel after watching the movie, you'll be severely disappointed. The book contains a love story between an unsatisfied housewife and a visiting photographer. The movie proves their sacrifice had meaning. The film starts out informing the audience that Meryl Streep has died and she wishes her ashes to be scattered over the bridges of Madison County, rather than to be laid to rest next to her husband. Her adult children, Annie Corley and Victor Slezak, are understandably confused, but when they come across a set of journals written by their mother, they learn of a brief love affair she had when they were children. Annie and Victor are struggling in their own lives, and learning more about their mother helps them navigate and learn. If you can believe it, the book doesn't include any of that! The housewife doesn't die, her children don't grow up, and she isn't able to continue to mother them beyond the grave. Where's the poignancy? Where are the final tears they could have wrung out of their readers? To me, the parallel storyline with the adult children is what makes this movie a tear-jerking classic. There are so many beautiful scenes that have staying in my memory, as I'm sure they've stayed in yours, even though it's been over ten years since I've watched it. I remember how many Kleenexes I went through during each part of the movie, which is probably why I haven't broken open that cellophane. My heart breaks when Meryl presses a shaky hand to the car door, and although I'm not a mother myself, I appreciate her wonderful expression as she closes her heart before greeting her children.

Getting past the tears, there's so much wonderful acting in this movie that makes you wonder how Meryl ever lost the Academy Award, and why Clint wasn't even nominated, since it's his finest hour as well. Perfectly cast as a drifter with dreams that have passed him by, he could have easily come across as either a sleazy Harold Hill-type who wants a fling with a grateful housewife, or an unrealistic romantic. He's neither, and because the love they share is mutual, the story works.

If you've never seen it, you've got to pick the right moment to watch The Bridges of Madison County for the first time. Don't watch it after a breakup, and don't watch it when you're feeling blue. You'll need all your strength to get through it. But you'll be rewarded. You'll get to see two career-best performances in an indelible love story, and you'll find yourself wondering if Meryl Streep is secretly Italian and has hidden her accent in all her other movies.

The film begins shortly after Francesca's death and her children are confronted with a big surprise...their mother was not faithful to their father and, oddly, wrote it all down and left evidence of the affair for the children to find (huh??)! What follows is a jump back to the 1960s, when an Iowa farm wife (Meryl Streep) meets and falls in love with a roving photographer for "National Geographic", Robert (Clint Eastwood). There you see how the pair meet and their very, very brief affair that lasted only a few short days.

As for Francesca's grown children, at first they are horrified but over time they seem to think it was cool that their mother had this hidden life. The above quote is spoken by the daughter in "The Bridges of Madison County". It's referring to her mother's affair with a relative stranger. Perhaps I am overly moralistic and judgmental, but to me this DOES make her mother a bad person...though it would not seem to be so by Hollywood standards. And, to me, this is the fundamental problem with the film. While it's artfully acted, gorgeously made and directed...ultimately it's a film that romanticizes adultery. If the lady's husband had been physically abusive or evil, perhaps you could understand her actions...but his biggest crime is he was dull...and the wife never seemed to tell him she wasn't satisfied. You'd think she'd owe it to the guy or perhaps ask for a divorce. To me, that makes this a film that is tough to enjoy...as I felt bad for the husband...as I would if my wife went off and had an affair with someone else. And, I would sure hope my wife would feel the same way about this film and its message about a 'nice' affair.

The image of Clint Eastwood, firmly ingrained in the minds of the movie-going public is that of a man of few words and lots of actions to back up what little words he does employ. So to see this multi-talented and complex man directing himself and starring in an old fashioned romantic story is a pleasant surprise. Made even more pleasant in how well it was done.

The children of Meryl Streep are gathered for her funeral and are astonished at a request left by her not to be buried next to her husband and their father. Instead she wants to be cremated and her ashes thrown off a wooden bridge in the area and in the creek it runs over. Later on her grown children Annie Corley and Victor Slezak find a letter among their mother's effects and it's a lengthy one and she explains her reasons for this.

One day back in the early sixties when the kids and husband Jim Haynie left for the state fair, National Geographic Photographer Clint Eastwood stops by and asks Streep for directions. He's in the area to photograph the picturesque Bridges Of Madison County. Meryl is attracted by the stranger and it takes awhile, but before long she realizes she's found the true love of her life.

The issue of Meryl being Italian is there, but not overstated in the screenplay. She like thousands of others was a war bride brought over from Europe by GIs. There was a no fraternization policy that was enforced somewhat, but true love or true hormones obey no government edicts. A lot of these marriages worked. In fact Meryl's to Jim Haynie worked because no one found out about her indiscretion to Eastwood until after both of them died. She says herself that the transition from Italy to Iowa was a traumatic one, but she wanted to make it because she'd be going to America and a better life.

Meryl Streep received one of her sixteen Academy Award nominations for this role, the only recognition the Academy gave to The Bridges Of Madison County. Sad too because Clint Eastwood who is a man always challenging himself showed that their could be a tender a romantic side to Dirty Harry Callahan. In fact while watching The Bridges Of Madison County I guarantee you won't once think of any of Clint's action heroes.

Director Eastwood also exquisitely photographed the Iowa countryside on location in Winterset Iowa which already had its place in Hollywood lore as the birthplace of John Wayne. The Bridges Of Madison County is one of those tender romantic stories showing the fires of romance can still burn in people other than the young. But the film is for romantics of all ages.