Viewers of this film fall into two distinct categories, those who absolutely love it and those who are bored out of their minds by it. I fell to neither extreme but found it both moving and tremendously sad, not as much for the theatrical elements as the hopelessness of the main characters. I did not realize until the end that it was based on a woman's memoirs and is thus based on a true story.

Having become the black sheep of her family due to her precocious nature and immoral behavior, Karen (Meryl Streep) proposes a solution to her problem to her best friend, Baron Bror (Klaus Maria Brandauer) -- they should get married and that way she can move to him with Africa. There is no romantic spark between them but he is in need of financial support for his farm that a marriage with her would provide and so it seems a reasonable agreement. Arriving in Africa with all of her luggage and Irish wolf hounds in tow, Karen is immediately married off, her husband puts her money to good use growing coffee beans, and it doesn't take her long to make an impression on the natives as a fair landowner. With Bror off all of the time on business, she spends most of her evenings in the company of his friends, most notably Berkeley Cole (Michael Kitchen), a local financier, and Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford), who leads safaris when he is not trading in ivory.

Karen and Denys form an unlikely friendship that threatens to turn into something more, on the brink of war with Germany. Their romance is played out against the changing tide across Europe and Africa, so in that sense it has a broad original scope but everything is very focused around Karen and her struggles, triumphs, and losses as she attempts to manage the farm on her own once her husband abandons her. The film won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, and in some sense I can see why, because it was a very daring accomplishment, filled with beautiful acting, gorgeous panoramic views of Africa (most of it was shot on-location), and angst. From a purely moral standpoint, however, it has nothing much to recommend it because ultimately it is the true story of an adulterous affair that spanned a number of years -- not because Karen could not get a divorce, but because she chose not to.

Even when her husband (whom we learn has also been cheating on her) asks for a divorce in order to get remarried, Karen cannot convince Denys to marry her. Interestingly enough, this bothers her a great deal, because she would like the comfort and security of belonging to him, and having him belong to her, but he is so much a "free spirit" that he does not want to close off his options. It makes for an ultimately tragic relationship that leaves the audience feeling a bit hollow when it is over, thinking on how much these two missed by not having the comfort and security of marriage. Even so, both of them are likable characters to such an extent that the audience is almost willing to forgive their faults. The acting really is lovely and it was a treat to see so many brilliant thespians in the same film. It's also very clean for the kind of story that it is -- most of the time, the sexual relationship between the main leads are kept to passionate kisses and fade-outs. There is one intimate but shadowy scene of them in bed together, in which he intimates the desire to slow down and savor the moment. I don't remember any notable profanities, but animal lovers may object to a scene in which lions are depicted as taking down a cow and mauling her to death. Shots of the animal's wide eyes and pain are combined with snippets of lions snarling and tearing into the poor animal, before they are frightened off with the use of a bull whip. Karen is also forced to shoot two lions that come charging out of the underbrush to maul her group.

I'm not certain if any animals were actually harmed during the production of the film, but I did find out an interesting piece of trivia -- that Meryl was told the lions' hind legs would be shackled during her confrontation with them, and at the last minute filmmakers opted not to, since it might show up on film. Therefore, the terror on her face while she tries to keep them at bay was real. The film itself is entertaining and thought-provoking simply because it raises some very interesting things about marriage, but also seems to drag sometimes because of the three hour running length.