I Dreamed of Africa

I Dreamed of Africa is a movie based on a true story about a woman who changes her and her son`s life when she goes to live to a ranch in Kenya with her second husband. Some parts of the movie do not make any sense, or they look incomplete. That is because they show how hard living in Kenya is; but they aren`t an important part of the story. Another bad thing about it is that it`s way to predicable: you know that something will happen to Paolo (Kuki`s husband) since the first time he goes away hunting; and every time Ema (short for Emanuel, her son) grabs a snake you prepare yourself for a funeral. It is a shocking movie and you may go out of the movie theater hating Africa; but it shows some important parts of the living difficulties in places like Kenya. Altogether I think that it was a worthwhile movie, specially for us Kenya lovers, and you can get to know amazing parts of African savannahs.

What's up with all these negative comments? Out of all the comments I read on this site, less than one fifth of them are positive. I may not be old enough to have seen a huge amount of movies, but I must say that as a 16 year old, I truly enjoyed this movie. Of course, certain moments were meaningless, some parts were a tiny weeny bit confusing, but you caught up with the story within the next two seconds. The acting by the whole cast was amazing, the scenery was gorgeous, hehe and so was Vincent Perez! The music was...um...well displaced at certain times, but overall the movie made me cry twice ( well many things make me cry so you might not want to take that into consideration ) the story was quite well constructed, the actors did a great job. (I have an enormous amount of respect for actors as I want to be one someday, so I do not believe that any performance can be bad, some can be improved in certain ways, but nothing is ever awful and only constructive criticism should be given to actors. As I've always been told: If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. A few of the people who commented on the performances should have been taught that.) I have given this movie a 9 out of 10. It may not be one of the best movies ever made, but not one movie has ever been absolutely perfect, and I truly think this one deserves much better reviews that it has gotten, although that is JMHO and everyone has their own, so I'm not dissing anyone's POV. Well that's all of my rambling for today ;)

I Dreamed of Africa could have been a better movie, but I became more satisfied with it after seeing that it stayed pretty close to the real story.

Some have criticized the film because they said it showed no problem with malaria, and the people looked as if they were never sweating in Africa's heat.

The 100,000 acre ranch in Africa is located at an altitude of 6000 feet above sea level, and there is no malaria problem there. It is probably somewhat cooler there than other places in Africa also.

I found the film to be pretty good, but I believe the nude scene with Bassinger and her film husband was unnecessary. Does Hollywood believe that every film has to have nudity?

I rented this film a while ago on video and thought it was a definite 8/10.

I have since bought it on DVD and decided to watch it again a few days ago. Although not having the same impact as my first viewing, here was my opinion.

I saw this film as a wonderfully photographed movie (based on a True Story) about a very strong willed woman "Kuki Gallman".

In the beginning we see her survive a horrific car crash and raising a family by herself. She decides to marry a man called Paolo (Vincent Perez) whom she has known only a short time. She likes Paolo a lot and sees that he is great with her Son Emmanuel, she makes a very difficult decision against the wishes of her Mother (Eva Marie Saint) to move to Africa to live with him.

Their initially idyllic life is shattered by confrontations with Poachers, Loneliness on her part (as her Husband likes danger and is often away on hunting Trips) and culminates with immense personal tragedy.

The performances were very good in this Movie (including a pre-bond outing for Daniel Craig with an excellent South African accent) Vincent Perez was excellent as Kuki Gallman's Husband Paolo. Overall Kim Basinger was admittedly not up to the Oscar Winning Level of LA Confidential and did have a couple of poorly acted scenes, but also showed flashes of dramatic excellence and touches the viewer in some of the more emotional scenes, So overall her performance was quite good. Eva Marie Saint offered a solid supporting performance as Basinger's Mother.

I have to say that it is obvious to me , film critics and a lot of others did not really give this film a chance and possibly compared it to Out of Africa. This is unfair as the film is set in different time and about different individuals. I personally found this film much more watchable than the aforementioned film but probably not as well acted.

Hugh Hudson has directed a great looking film, but the script needed additional work, which would have improved the impact of some scenes.

All in all though this film is well worth your time, do watch it and form your own opinions. 7/10

When I read all the reviews I could about this movie, including specialized magazines, I thought to myself that Kim Basinger had a bad dream after the great LA Confidential, one of my favourite movies of the 90's.

Now that I've seen it, I believe that 'I Dreamed of Africa' was not well understood. This is a different movie, the story was written to show dramatic and common scenes of Kuki's life, trying to reveal that all dreams can bring nightmares. And Kim shows us that she's a mature actress, not only a sex-symbol. She had no glamour in Africa, but her sensuality is so natural that I thought to myself that she was the most beautiful animal in Africa.

This film deserved more positive reviews than it had. It's not worse or better than 'Out Africa'. Only different. And this difference makes it fabulous.