Everyone's life is worthy of its own movie. Nobody goes through this world without connecting, and everyone feels the heartbreak of loss and the ecstasy of triumph. So it's a shame that a life as adventurous and extraordinary as Kuki Gallmann's makes for such a shallow movie.
The movie is "I Dreamed of Africa," directed by Hugh Hudson. Hudson is the same man who debuted with the riveting Oscar-winner "Chariots of Fire," the story of prejudice among Olympic athletes in 1924. But even though the period he covers in "Africa" is more recent (taking place in the 1970s and '80s), Hudson ultimately pulls farther away from the heart.
He begins this weakly constructed narrative with a car accident that catapults the Italy-dwelling socialite Kuki (Kim Basinger) from the vehicle. As Paolo (Vincent Perez), the driver, comforts the temporarily debilitated Kuki (a divorced mother of one young son), the two fall in love.
But this love, as real as it must have been, seems mighty superficial here. It also comes off as cliched. In one scene, Paolo readjusts a hand-held mirror so that the immobile Kuki can see the night sky, literally bringing her the moon.
Also, the car accident itself is not enough of a springboard for the rest of the film's plot. Kuki claims, through Basinger's solemn voice-over narration, that she feels as though her life has been a failure, and that she feels paralyzed. But writer Paula Milne's treatment of Kuki's published accounts doesn't explain these sentiments, nor does it justify Kuki's willingness to marry Paolo and uproot her life (and son Emanuelle's) to a ranch in Kenya.
Yet that's exactly what the family did, and Hudson portrays the Gallmanns' adjustment to African life in the most episodic of styles. We see the family moving into their ranch, which generates nearly as much excitement as watching a family unload a Ryder truck.
Any close calls with poachers, the elements or neighboring animals lack serious dramatic weight. They happen, they're over, and life goes on. We hear over and over again that Kenya has "a different rhythm," but the film itself has no rhythm at all.
As a result, we never see how Kuki changes. She's certainly a different woman at film's end than she was in the beginning, and while Basinger gives it her all, there's only so much she can do. The scenes of "Africa" work as vignettes, letting her display touches of sadness, rage and tenderness here and there, but Hudson never lets her connect those dots. The voice-overs are also unnecessary, because Basinger conveys all those emotions anyway.
Kuki learns to be resourceful and independent, and to find strength in solitude, but Milne never strikes beneath the surface. She only concentrates on what happened to Kuki rather than on how she dealt with it. For example, when Kuki realizes that Paolo is addicted to the scent of danger and risk, her explosion seems merely melodramatic because Milne does not place it in its proper context.
Basinger looks even better when compared to her wooden co-stars. Oscar-winner Eva Marie Saint phones in her performance as Kuki's mother, the obnoxious, two-dimensional Franca. And while Liam Aiken is fine as young Emanuele, Garrett Strommen is a wooden bore as the 17-year-old version of Kuki's son.
Milne succeeds in getting across one point in her "Africa" script. Kuki (who still lives on her Kenyan ranch today) learned from her many travails that life is not about holding on -- it's about the process of letting go.
Unfortunately, when we let go of the movie, Hudson provides us nothing by which we can remember Gallmann's awesome life except Bernard Lutic's postcard-worthy cinematography.
Grade: C-
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