The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995)

Meryl Streep gets to essay another accent as an Italian housewife with unfulfilled dreams, cooped up on a farm in 1960s Iowa. Clint Eastwood, meanwhile, gets to move decisively away from Magnums and orang-utans as the world-worn but poetic photographer who comes into her life for four days and changes it forever.
The soulful stranger who sweeps you off your feet is the mainstay of chick-flicks, of course, but there is a lot more to this film, at least in the first half as their relationship develops. Streep and Eastwood have an easy familiarity and the dialogue is similarly unforced, making for an affecting whole.
Later on, as is Eastwood's regular fallibility when he helms, the transition into the aftermath drags under an overly reverential air, and could probably have done with having half an hour lopped off. Still, a wistful charm aids it to amble over the finishing line without stretching patience.

7/10