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Out of Africa (film)
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===Critical reception=== On [[review aggregator]] [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film holds an approval rating of 62% based on 90 reviews, with an average rating of 6.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Though lensed with stunning cinematography and featuring a pair of winning performances from Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, ''Out of Africa'' suffers from excessive length and glacial pacing."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/out_of_africa |title=''Out of Africa'' (1985) |work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |publisher=[[Fandango Media]] |access-date=August 10, 2023}}</ref> [[Metacritic]] reports a score of 69 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/out-of-africa|title=Out of Africa Reviews|website=[[Metacritic]]|publisher=[[CBS Interactive]]|access-date=July 14, 2019}}</ref> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/movies/ed-mintz-dead.html|title=Ed Mintz, Who Gave Audiences the Chance to Grade Films, Dies at 83|last=Sandomir|first=Richard|date=March 18, 2024|accessdate=July 31, 2024|website=[[The New York Times]]|archive-date=March 27, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240327083344/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/movies/ed-mintz-dead.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Roger Ebert]] of the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' gave the film four stars out of four and called it "one of the great recent epic romances," adding, "What we have here is an old-fashioned, intelligent, thoughtful love story, told with enough care and attention that we really get involved in the passions among the characters."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/out-of-africa-1985 |title=Out of Africa |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=December 20, 1985 |website=[[RogerEbert.com]] |access-date=March 5, 2019 }}</ref> [[Vincent Canby]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' described it as "a big, physically elaborate but wispy movie" with Redford's character "a total cipher, and a charmless one at that. It's not Mr. Redford's fault. There's no role for him to act."<ref>Canby, Vincent (December 18, 1985). "[https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/packages/html/movies/bestpictures/africa-re.html?scp=3&sq=loews&st=cse Screen: Out of Africa.]" ''[[The New York Times]]''. C17.</ref> [[Gene Siskel]] of the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, and declared: "My basic problem with this otherwise sumptuous and well-acted film is that I never was able to accept Redford in character ... He seems distant to the point of distraction. He is not convincing in his period outfits. He looks and acts as if he just walked out of the safari fitting room at [[Abercrombie & Fitch]]."<ref>Siskel, Gene (December 20, 1985). "Redford mars the beauty of 'Out of Africa'". ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''. Section 7, p. A, M.</ref> [[David Ansen]] of ''[[Newsweek]]'' wrote that the film was "well worth the wait," calling it "a sprawling but always intelligent romantic epic that depicts Karen Blixen's struggles to hold on to both the man and the land she loves and cannot possess."<ref>Ansen, David (December 23, 1985). "Paradise Remembered". ''[[Newsweek]]''. p. 72.</ref> [[Sheila Benson]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' wrote that the film "seems to be just the thing for famished culture mavens at Christmastime. Unfortunately, and through no fault of Meryl Streep, there doesn't seem to be enough electricity generated out there in Africa to power a love story 2Β½ hours long".<ref>Benson, Sheila (December 18, 1985). [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-12-18-ca-26572-story.html "Two Women of Substance in Unlikely Settings."] ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''. Part VI, p. 1.</ref> ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' found that the film "rarely really comes to life except when Redford is around, which unfortunately is not often in the first hour," but once Streep and Redford get together it becomes "a wonderful romance, probably Redford's best since ''[[The Way We Were]]''".<ref>"Film Reviews: Out of Africa". ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]''. December 11, 1985. 17.</ref> [[Pauline Kael]] of ''[[The New Yorker]]'' described the film as "unsatisfying" and wrote that Streep is "animated in the early scenes; she's amusing when she acts ditsy, and she has some oddly affecting moments. Her character doesn't deepen though, or come to mean more to us, and Redford doesn't give out with anything for her to play against."<ref>Kael, Pauline (December 30, 1985). "The Current Cinema". ''[[The New Yorker]]''. 67, 68.</ref> [[Paul Attanasio]] of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' stated that the film "has little in the way of narrative drive" and "rarely seems more than an elevated form of tourism."<ref>Attanasio, Paul (December 20, 1985). "[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/12/20/out-of-africa-redford-38/a0147dd0-43c7-4d8c-ad6d-757602cee6f7/?noredirect=on 'Out of Africa': Redford & Streep in a Tropical Tupor.]" ''[[The Washington Post]]''. C4.</ref> Reviewing the film in 2009, [[James Berardinelli]] wrote: "Watching ''Out of Africa'' a quarter of a century after its release, it's almost impossible to guess how it won the Oscar for Best Picture ... Sydney Pollack's direction is quietly competent and the acting by Meryl Streep and Robert Redford is top notch. But the lazy story is little more than an ordinary melodrama that simmers without ever reaching a boil. To tell the truth, during the entirety of the movie's nearly three-hour running length, I was more interested in the scenery and Barry's music than I was in the characters."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/out-of-africa |title=Out of Africa |last=Berardinelli |first=James |date=May 28, 2009 |website=Reelviews |access-date=March 5, 2019 }}</ref>
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