Chapter twenty-eight: The Bridges of Madison County

It's safe to say that we all know the premise of this movie. I realized after brief research that it's sort of a romantic classic. So, with that in mind, I will try not to explain it more than I have to, as to avoid losing the integrity of the film.

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Following her death, Francesca Johnson's (Meryl's) children are going through her belongings. They find pictures of their mother they have never seen before, in company with handwritten love letter from a man named Robert Kincaid (Clint Eastwood,) all tucked safely away in a manilla envelope.They also find a statement saying that her burial wish is to be cremated and thrown off The Roseman Covered Bridge, along with a key to truck underneath her bed that reveals a collection of Robert's possessions and an entire book's worth of papers detailing her love affair with Robert. As the children sort through the letters with dumbstruck demeanors, we viewers of the movie are transported back to when the affair took place.

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Francesca's family is off on a four day camping trip. She has stayed behind at the house and is outside on her front porch when a photographer, Robert, has pulled up asking directions to his assignment, Roseman Bridge. Francesca's not too good at giving directions so she offers to take him instead. On the bridge, Francesca acts as Robert's model, and picks flowers out of the grassland for her as a sweet gesture. Then they gather back at her place for iced tea. Iced tea blossoms into a conversational dinner but is spoiled when Robert asks her,

"You wanna leave your husband?"

Robert calls her the next day, asking if dinner plans at six would be appropriate, although he does not want to put her in a compromising situation. Francesca accepts the idea and goes out to buy a new dress. They rekindle out on the bridge, and when they go for dinner at her place again, only this time, dinner turns into dessert. After a picnic the next day, Francesca gives Robert a necklace of hers and they go out together. By this point what they have together is more of a relationship rather than a fling. Finally, Francesca asks,

"What is this?"

She's angry that Robert doesn't seem to need her, she thinks that he places this sort of love spell on many other women all over the country. She has to know what they are doing, because it's all over tomorrow. To which he responds,

"I don't want to need you because I can't have you."

Their argument is interrupted by a friend who comes to visit Francesca while Robert hides upstairs. Afterwards, he asks the infamous question,

"Come away with me."

At their last dinner together, Francesca tearfully declines the offer because she does not want to throw away the life with her family to start a new one. Robert looks back at her and says,

"This kind of certainty comes but just once in a lifetime."

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When her family arrives home from the trip, Francesca and her husband make a trip to the grocery store for dinner. They are stopped at the longest possible red light, and Robert is standing in the rain waiting for her to OPEN THE DAMN DOOR. The agony as she looks at him and grips the door handle, but doesn't follow through with the motion is indescribable.Their loving four days are over and will become nothing more. At the end of Francesca's long, handwritten letter to her children she states one of my personal favorite cinematic lines,

"I gave my life to my family. I wish to give Robert what is left of me."

It shows that people still exist after they pass.

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I love this movie, but it's as bittersweet as they come. Two people who were lucky enough to find each other, but during an unlucky period of their lives. They put their love aside for what they knew was not necessarily the best, but the least chaotic decision, and to later be reunited in death.

As always, thank you for the entertainment Meryl.