I bumped into this film on television rather unexpectedly. I've never seen L.A. Confidential so I can't say I'm a fan of Kim Basinger. But as soon as I saw the photography I just couldn't take my eyes off the TV. This is a beautiful film about a farm in Kenya where there are no mosquitoes or infectious deceases. It's about a woman in her forties trying not to get her second husband killed every time he goes away hunting or her teenager son poisoned by one of his pet snakes. So as far as I'm concerned about the characters there's not much to say but it's still a visually stunning film with some rain and maybe a storm or two throughout the whole film. Althougt, I have to admit that the actors did their best with what they had and made me cry one too many times. The children gave a spark of happiness to the feeling that you know terrible things are about to happen to the main characters. In the end, it's a sad film with a message of love of nature in savage Africa brought to us by superb Basinger and Vincent Perez, who by the way I just love since "La Reine Margot".

`White folks in exotic lands', such as the Italians in Africa's Kenya in Hugh Hudson's I Dreamed of Africa, are always looking for themselves amidst colonialism, racial ignorance, and gender stereotypes.I Dreamed of Africa is a film based on the true story of Kuki Gallman (Kim Basinger), an upper-class, divorced Italian woman who falls in love with and marries the handsome adventurer Paolo Gallman (Vincent Perez). She then moves to Africa with her new husband and her seven-year-old son Emanuele (Liam Aiken) to seek a new life on a ranch in Kenya. Kuki's reasoning for uprooting her and her son's life in Italy in order to move to Africa with a man she has barely known is simply reduced to her explanation, `I've stopped growing.' The movie is then held together by a string of tragic events and crying caused by Africa, including the death of Kuki's husband and son. We never really understand why Kuki continues to be adamant about surviving in Africa in spite of very little character growth (her original reason for moving to Africa), her mother's constant advice to move back to Italy, and a high society lifestyle to return to. The movie ends with an epigraph indicating that Kuki created a conservation foundation: this seems to be the film's "proof" that she's developed, yet it is tacked on as an afterthought. Aside from the film's many structural weaknesses, apparent societal politics involving colonialism, race, and gender are completely glossed over.Europeans never seem to tire of traveling to Africa to exploit its people and resources. Since the early colonialist/safari movies such as Tarzan and Drums of the Congo, Africa has been portrayed as a dangerous exotic land that must be tamed, explored, and conquered. The initial fascination and curiosity gradually turns into hostility and contempt as the Europeans try to explain the Africans peoples' looks, habits and differences to justify their exploitation. Today, the Europeans still allow their fascination and curiosity to justify exploitation. Kuki, Paolo, and Emanuele's migration to Kenya stems from a fascination and curiosity of the country and transforms into a struggle for survival that leaves two thirds of them dead. The audience is left with the assessment of Africa and its inhabitants as dangerous and in need of some serious help. `Fortunately', the ending's epigraph indicating that Kuki created a conservation foundation assists in the alleviation our `concerns'. The omission of Africans in the Africa of I Dreamed of Africa follows the consistent vein of `white folks in exotic lands' films. This film shot in Kenya is about the struggles white people face when they move to Africa, and is clearly a movie about Europeans. There is nothing new about the sweeping shots of Africa's landscapes (without Africans) that attempt to carry the film through its weak plotline. The native Africans become just another element in the exotic landscape, allowing the film to sidestep the charged issues of racism and the legacy of imperialism in the 1980s. The only dark-skinned individuals are servants, local natives, and poachers. Paolo seems obsessed with guns and hunting, and it seems highly unethical for him to be calling African poachers `butchers' when Kuki sees a dead rhino and asks, `Who would do this?' The film ignores the similarities between Paolo's frequent hunting and the poachers' killing, and asks the viewer to take his side by showing his "concern" for wildlife and presenting the Africans as "butchers!" I Dreamed of Africa had an opportunity to portray Kuki Gallman as a strong woman overcoming many hardships, struggles, and trials in a foreign land; but portrayed her as a woman who managed to keep her hair, house, and clothing clean and beautiful and neat in spite of African ranch life. Her `adventure of a lifetime' was running a ranch; making mistakes without learning much from them, and watching the men in her life leave and die. Though voiceover can be an effective device for detailing a character's thoughts and personal growth, it fails miserably here because Kuki doesn't appear to have anything meaningful or even amusing to say. As she surveys the landscape about her, she can only note, "I am alone. Yet I am never alone. I am surrounded by Africa." If Kuki's voiceover is a means to allow the viewer into Kuki's head, the main female character's thoughts are empty and meaningless. She seems helpless when she asks `Why is love so hard?' when her son goes to a boarding school and `What kind of people do this?' when she comes across a dead rhino, and does nothing to really follow up these questions. Though the film professes to be about the amazing life of Kuki Gallman, her internal and personal growth; we never really get a sense of her as a very complex or evolving woman. I Dreamed of Africa stays true to its `white folks in exotic lands' counterpart films with its treatment of colonialism, race, and gender. These issues are secondary throughout the film, though set in a time and place where they are very real and controversial. The audience is led to believe that Europeans are right to exploit Africa, Africans have no real role in their native land, and that white women are really very silly. I Dreamed of Africa has its role as proof towards the destruction of truth consistent to these `white folks in exotic lands' films.

I've seen thousands of movies over the years, many good, many bad, and some that just make me wish I would've just shoveled snow naked instead. This film was the latter. Yes, it was painful to sit through. Very painful. I really had high hopes for this film. I was looking forward to relaxing to a good nature flick that had some excitement as well. One with a good plot. Forget it here! I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting, but nothing. There were tons of opportunities too. But nothing. A few things kept going through my head as I watched this movie: 1) Hollywood losers trying to make a point. 2)Bleeding heart liberal conservationist using this as a vehicle, and 3)Chick flick. Not even just a chick flick, but a chick flick written by a chick! Man, I'm still hurting! I hate it when 4,000 babies are being aborted a day in the USA, and yet I'm supposed to cry over a dead rhino which is far more important in their eyes. Yes, many have missed the point in life, especially you Kim. Ok, Basinger still looks good in her upper 40's, and I applaud her at not using tons of facelifts like most of Hollywood past 40, but that's the only reason this film gets a 1/10 from me! Hello folks, there's a reason this film has been given 68 1/10's! Keep reading...From the get go it was lost. A bunch of rich people living in Italy and none seemed to be Italian. They're loser theatre types out drinking and heading to a bar late at night. Hymph, accurate there at least. An accident and it's time for a change. Let's get married and move to Kenya! Hello!! They go from pampered to no running water or A.C., ya, right! On another note, that lead actors accent, it was enough to make me rip my eardrums out! Ugh, please get it out of my head!!! I don't know what country he was from. Kim (Kuki), or Kooky, which is more accurate, is having a hard time adjusting to rough Africa life, but hangs in there. She worries about her husband going out too much with the boys, and danger...he of course dies. The funeral, and Kim's first painful written speech. Her boy grows up, she tells him not to raise poisonous snakes, he gets bit, he dies. Kims second and even more painful funeral poem/speech. Ugh, thankfully I had some pudding to eat and the fast forward button. Kim's Mom keeps flying in to the funerals. It's Eva Marie Saint, and boy, she hasn't aged well at all. In fact, the dead rhino looked better. Sorry Eva. At one point their jeep gets stuck in the mud (of course after Mom warns her) and she steps out into a puddle and wrecks her new gucci's. Ya, gucci's in wild Africa, oh, I forgot, us idiots had to be reminded they were rich socialites from Italy! Oyvay!!! Kim also informs some local tribal chief of poachers killing the poor Elephants and Rhinos..You have to see this guy, man, what poor typecasting! He reminds me of the black guy from Crocodile Dundee II, all cool and suave. My gosh, he's supposed to be a tribal chief living in a 130 degree hut!!! Plus, he's wearing shades and not sweating!! A black guy not sweating in the African heat, give me a break! I really can't go on, man, this film totally stunk! Period! Not even Kim's shirt falling off from behind could save it. Force the director, the lead actors, the casting agent, and all involved to live there for the rest of their lives! Flamio, and I'm out!

Okayyyyyyy...a total fantasy pic ***SPOLIER***How does Kim Basigner's character keep so clean in all that white linen?Perhaps the book upon which this film was based was intriguing, but this film has so many flaws (as one other reviewer pointed out the "languages" issue etc.) Nice beauty footage of Kenya (although IMDB lists the filming location as a game reserve in South Africa so perhaps just some Second Unit beauty shots in Kenya?) ADVISE? Skip this stinker and get "Nowhere In Afrika" if you want to see a great film shot in Africa.