It is intelligent, warm and human. The only pyrotechnics are the emotional kind. But the movie is not for everyone, and the same can be said for the book. There has been a great deal of debate about the quality of Waller's tiny novel that grew into a runaway best-seller. Not even Waller was able to match his success with the two subsequent books and his recorded collection of ballads about Madison County.
Matters do get better on the big screen.
This is made possible by the direction of the movie's co-star Clint Eastwood, buthe had a solid foundation to work with thanks to the incredible script byRichard LaGravenese. He should get billing alongside of Streep and Eastwood for writing such astrong, well thought-out script. Almost as controversial as the making of this movie was the casting of its two leads. When reading the novel, everyone, including this reviewer, picked movie stars to play the title roles. My selections were Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange.