I DREAMED OF A BETTER MOVIE
by Sasha Stone

I Dreamed of Africa plays as if it were the making of a Banana Republic catalog shoot - beautiful, pristine blonde against a rugged, African backdrop. The only things missing are the price tags for the glorious linen and silk (mostly snow white and khaki) Basinger showcases. Of course, you can try to get past that and enjoy the movie. But then there's the movie: pointless, dull, silly and even insulting, except for the animal cameos.

I Dreamed of Africa tells the story of real life African wildlife conservationist, Kuki Gallman, an apparently idle rich Italian, who gives it all up to run off to Africa with "some guy," in this case, her new husband, Paolo (Vincent Pérez), and her adventerous young son, Emanuele (Liam Aiken). Or perhaps, because Gallman's true story takes place in the Seventies, Kuki and son appear to be casualties of the "Me Generation." "I've stopped growing," she announces, as if her son was hip to the lingo of self-discovery.

The name Kuki suddenly seems like some hilarious pun. Only, it's not. Where's Goldie Hawn when you need her?

Once settled, Kuki is reminded, all too frequently, that there's a different rhythm in Africa and she'll have to just get used to it. Getting used to it means, essentially, that this otherwise privileged white lady is thrust back in time when husbands left their wives for days on end. That appears to be Kuki's only snag in the arrangement: "I just want a piece of you," she tells him.

Being left home alone ends up being nothing compared to the tragedies that lie ahead for Kuki and her family in Africa. Turns out, Kuki is the survivor, the one who braves the African landscape, mixing in enough caution to keep her out of danger. Although the real Kuki Gallman still lives on that 100,000-acre ranch today, preserving its wildlife, enriching the Africa of her dreams, she paid a high price for it - the deaths of her son and husband.

While the film tries to keep the audience connected to Kuki's heartache, it fails on every level. We're supposed to have sympathy for Kuki, to see her as some kind of victim of fate. We don't, because we haven't the slightest idea who she is. Gallman cares deeply for her Africa, but we're never let in, only told how she feels via a flat, emotionless voice-over.

How does a woman of the modern world adjust to life in Africa? If only we'd been given the opportunity to see just how difficult it must have been. Sure, the big tragedies aren't skipped. But we need the smaller ones, the character-builders, so that we can feel something for the characters when the big ones hit.

With this, her first starring role since winning the Oscar for L.A. Confidential, Basinger had too much to prove. She has admitted in interviews that she was afraid to take on the part. This fear, either because she was under-confident or because she couldn't connect, is visible throughout. She seems awkward, especially in her attempts to suppress her trademark Southern accent, carefully pronouncing her words, lowering her voice an octave or two and dropping all hints of the giggly, half-naked Basinger of her pre-Oscar days.

Director Hugh Hudson deserves much of the blame for dropping the ball. Even if he wanted to make a sweeping epic, like his Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire, and not a cinematic travel journal, he failed to provide enough dramatic tension to make the film involving.

Several key scenes are lopped off before any real excitement can build, as in the scene where Kuki and her mother-in-law (Eva Marie Saint) get stuck in the mud and are forced to walk home. Just as the scary music starts, the scene awkwardly cuts to the next day where we're told that they had been tracked by two lions, missing death by seconds. Choosing to tell what happened rather than show was just one example of a whole film of missed opportunities.

I Dreamed of Africa would have been much better off selling clothes to unsuspecting, dreamy-eyed consumers who can look at the pictures and imagine the rest. Like its star, it's beautiful to look at and nothing more.