I Dreamed of Africa (2000) User Reviews

Magnificent scenery emphasized at the expense of the story

[FlickJunkie-2 · 7/10 · 24 September 2000]

This film was a fluff piece that succeeded better as a showcase for Kim Bassinger and Africa's natural beauty than it did at telling this true story. The first hour of the film was a succession of Kodak moments depicting the romantic splendor of Africa and how idyllic it would be to live there. Although they showed the occasional storm and threatening wild animal, every effort was made to emphasize the positives. They glossed over little things like the oppressive heat (Kenya straddles the equator but no one in the film ever broke a sweat), insects (not a mosquito in sight), and the fact that the rainy season is three months long and it often rains nonstop for weeks. The first hour seemed more like an advertisement by the Kenyan ministry of tourism than a feature film. It wasn't until the second hour that the story really centered on the characters.

Filming Africa is a cinematographer's dream. Unfortunately, Director Hugh Hudson seems to have been so enamored with creating beautiful photography (and it was truly magnificent) that he rushed through the dramatic elements to get to the next helicopter shot of wild animals loping across the plains. Many of the important dramatic scenes were not allowed to fully develop, giving a snippet and then cutting away to a completely unrelated scene. This took much of the impact out of the film. One example is the egg hanging over the bed. A big point was made over the fact that Paolo had put something in the egg. Yet, we never learn what it is. Why tease us with this tidbit if he is not going to follow through?

The film had strong conservationist undertones, but they were tastefully done and not overly preachy. The point was made that poaching to hunt elephants for ivory is illegal and unconscionable, but it was presented in a way that wasn't strident and smug. The scenes of dead elephants made the statement in a poignant way, much better than any dialogue could have.

Kim Basinger was excellent as Kuki. She went with a more natural look which was very flattering. The understated makeup used in the film revealed that even at 47, she is still one of the most beautiful women on the planet. However, after a three-year hiatus since L.A. Confidential, she delivered her second consecutive acting triumph, proving that she is more than just a pretty face. Her acting was far more genuine and mature than any role I had seen her play before. After having read an interview she gave about the film, it is clear that Basinger is a strong conservationist and naturalist and she identified strongly with her role, which imbued her performance with great conviction and believability.

This film was good, but it could have been much better. I rated it a 7/10. The locations and photography were marvelous, but the story's power was frayed by inattention to basic filmmaking tenets. If Hudson had spent more time developing the characters and creating continuity for the story, it would have been an exceptional film.

Everything fell apart due to poor script

[Gritty Kitty · 5/10 · 10 September 2000]

Boy this movie went to video quickly, and now I understand why. It nearly breaks my heart to have to give a thumbs-down to such a huge effort of making a feature film. However, it can't be denied that this movie fell apart from the beginning. I simply did not care about any of the characters and could not connect with them, no matter how I tried. And it's all due to the writing!

It seemed the actors were trying desperately to make up for that lack of continuity and motivation in the script, and so, often their performances seemed contrived, plastic, and/or over-the-top. I think under the guidance of better writing, these actors would shine like we know they can.

What happened to character development and motivation? Perhaps it died in the car crash at the beginning of the film? Was Kuki an American in Italy, or an Italian? Who was the lady that was with Kuki's mother, when they were trying to convince her to come home? Did Kuki and Paolo really love each other or not? Did the people working at Kuki's house become close with her? Kuki seemed oblivious to them. When did Kuki and Ema start speaking the language? It seemed they suddenly just knew it. Why did Ema want to leave to go to school? Kuki was digging a ditch to help out with the water supply, but then we never see any resolution to that situation. What happened??

One of the sweetest moments in the film for me, was when Ema connects with a little African boy, who obviously has a love for snakes too. He shows the boy around his house and introduces them to the snakes he has, and then we never see the boy again (!).

I also would have liked to see what was in the egg that was mentioned repeatedly within the story. Not having the resolution of that aspect (the egg) in particular, left me angry as the credits rolled.

"I Dreamed of Africa" did have interesting scenery and I believe talented cast and crew, but because the script was so bad, everything else really fell apart.

A review from someone who liked it

[magis-2 · 7/10 · 2 July 2000]

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.

No It's not Out of Africa - It's different!

[d_maccarter · 10 September 2004]

This isn't Out of Africa (get over it) but it isn't a waste of time either. A fairly well told story about a well off Italian divorcée in her 40's who migrates to Kenya with her young son and a new husband. Set in more modern times than Out of Africa. Domestic problems with the new hubby ensue, he dies, the young son dies, she endures and endeavors to persevere in her new home with the support of her family.

After reading all the downer reviews here I was sure this was going to be the world class stinker of all times, but I enjoyed it. It won't win any awards, it's not particularly inspiring and will no doubt end up just being ignored by everyone. Simply the story of a life with all it's ups and downs, loves and hates, hopes and dreams, and the drama that life puts on all our plates, with a setting in exotic Africa. Could it be? Someone besides Karen Blixen lived and loved in Africa and wrote a story about it. The photography was beautiful. The acting was acceptable and Kim Basinger is still a major hottie. Worth the rent. Check it out.

Nice Premise & Locale, But Story Lacks Spark

[ccthemovieman-1 · 4/10 · 29 December 2007]

As someone who loves African scenery and doesn't mind ogling Kim Bassinger, either, I was looking forward to seeing this film. It turned out to be disappointing. The scenery wasn't nearly what I had hoped, certainly no "Out Of Africa," and the story was, in a word: boring.

I never quite understood, or was told, a number of things in here, such as how the leading lady "Kuki Gallman") in this movie and her husband, financially survived. He was out fishing and hunting with his buddies all the time and she was home building some sort of wildlife conversation. One almost got to the point of asking, "What's the point of this story?" outside of being some sort of travelogue. That's the feel I got; an overly-long documentary about living in Kenya. It gets boring quickly.

Given the circumstances and scenery, this movie should have been fascinating, but it tedious. I'm not surprised it flopped at the box office and video stores.

Well worth watching, Basinger gives another good performance !

[med_1978 · 7/10 · 23 October 2007]

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

?

[mscregger · 5/10 · 18 August 2018]

All I have to say is....What was in the Ostrich Egg? Grrrr I hate movies that leave unanswered questions!

Weepy and contrived, but...

[rps-2 · 6/10 · 30 October 2000]

This is a weepy, contrived and disjointed film that tries to cram too much into its 84 minutes. Some pivotal moments in the picture are rushed through while other less important scenes run far too long. However the film is saved by a fine performance by Kim Bassinger and by some splendid images of Africa.

Dreaming about an Africa without Africans?

[Klaas-2 · 3/10 · 14 February 2001]

This is a strange movie. The title refers to dreaming of Africa. But the movie leaves unclear why the two principal characters are dreaming of Africa and what they are dreaming of. Perhaps they are dreaming of touristy pictures: beautiful landscapes, herds of wild animals and dancing Africans. Indeed, the movie has some nice images but alas, even these are spoiled with music that often sounds ill adapted.

What is worse is that African people are nearly absent as people. Not a single African gets more than a superficial treatment in this movie, so that it seems that the principal characters are dreaming of an Africa without Africans.

Well, perhaps all this is just due to the weak overall quality of the movie. In fact, there is hardly any character development. Many images remain disconnected and thus remain hollow. Finally this movie does not surpass the level of my neighbor's slide show of his package tour to Pakistan. Which is a pity for the means spend on it.

A new version of Out of Africa?

[esteban1747 · 6/10 · 23 June 2003]

It is always nice to admire the Kenyan landscape, its wildlife, and the eternal Masai tribe in films, that's what I like from this film, which drama does not give anything new of what we have seen in other films of this type, such as "Out of Africa" (1985) of the director Sydney Pollack or the recent "Nirgendwo in Afrika" (2001). The tragedy is similar to the first mentioned film and the environment is also the same as in the two previous films. Even the love of Kukiu Gallmann for Kenya is similar to the one felt by Karen Blixen-Finecke (Meryl Streep) in Out of Africa, and Jettel Redlich in Nirgendwo in Afrika. The film is acceptable and interesting to see because of the Kenyan ingredients but the drama does not provide anything new. However, Kim Basinger acted very well.

Good story very badly made!

[nicholls_les · 3/10 · 3 October 2020]

This could have been a good movie, but it was so badly filmed, directed, written and disjointed that I had to look up the real characters to find out what it was supposed to be al about. As others have said already on here, much of it made no sense whatsoever.

Why all the negative comments?

[lettersandstuff · 9/10 · 26 March 2001]

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 ;)

Not too well developed but beautiful

[marianaruiz1982 · 6/10 · 22 December 2006]

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".

I dreamed of a better movie.

[smatysia · 5/10 · 16 June 2001]

Some beautiful photography of East Africa. Kim Basinger was awfully pretty as well, and showed some real acting range in this role. Unfortunately, there wasn't much else to this picture. It failed to engage the viewer in spite of the things it had going for it. Kuki Gallmann seems to have had a fascinating life, and I hope her book is better than this movie. It probably is. Grade: D

Interesting, more so after knowing it was based on fact.

[mnlauer · 26 April 2002]

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 Dreamed I was Out of Africa: **Spoiler Review**

[artzau · 2/10 · 15 May 2003]

Reading the several reviews herein, I perceive no middle ground. Reviewers either hated this film or loved it. Haters decry poor acting, poor story-line, pointless deaths and wanton frustration, and, most damning, imitating Out of Africa. The comparisons are just too many to ignore. Lovers, on the other hand, wax romantically about feeling like "being in Africa," the poignant love story, the tragic deaths and the courage of a woman under the strain of living against the sage advice of her dear old mum.

Well, sports fans, I worked in East Africa for over 20 years and there is damn little to find romantic about it. Beautiful? Yes, Afica is that. Wild? Yes, beyond your wildest dreams. Frustrating. Same answer. I've never met an old Afican hand who did not at once love and hate that continent. [I could go on for hours on that subject, but back to the film:]

I fall in with the critics in that I found this film to be most unsatisfying. There are many fine treatments of the subject of women dealing with the frustrations and challenges of living in a land where if anything can go wrong, count on its occurring twice. Isak Denisen's and Elsbeth Huxley's books are greatly superior to Kuki's story. For my part, I found any ethnic connection being carried over into the story very unconvincing in both the book and this film, both of which come off as second rate. Look, Denisen and Huxley could write. We can leave it there. Out of Africa and The Flame Trees of Thika are classics...I dreamed of Africa is a whining wannabe tragedy, as a book and a badly acted film. Everybody's performance was weak and unconvincing in light of earlier treatments of the same subject.

Romantics will still gush and choke up at this story. Critics will still hold noses and give Bronx cheers. As for me, count me among the latter.

Great cinematography, poor script

[andypike-22859 · 6/10 · 3 August 2023]

Why is it that no-one has yet made a great film on the wonder of Africa?! I think this might be the best I've seen and yet I'd only give it 6 out of 10.

The good points... amazing cinematography, an interesting true story, and Kim Basinger is great in the lead part.

The bad points... poor script, editing, most of the acting, and direction. Re the last point, some really key scenes do not have the tension or engender the emotional reaction that they should do.

As a film I'd probably give it 5, but adding an extra point as it does look amazing and makes you want to go to Africa.

So a missed opportunity then. One day someone will make a great film set in Africa...

Altogether Disappointing

[sddavis63 · 2/10 · 31 March 2001]

From what I had heard and read of this movie, I was rather expecting to find a gripping story of animal activism in Africa, somewhat akin to "Gorillas in The Mist." But there's nothing like this here. What we get is a confusing story, in which the plotline jumps from scene to scene with no apparent pattern or purpose.

The performances are generally sub-par. Kim Basinger plays Kuki Gallman, the real-life conservationist, as we learn the story of how she got to Africa in the first place. Basinger showed a few sparks throughout the movie, but for the most part came across as rather distant. Vincent Perez was, I thought, a terrible disappointment as her husband Paolo. These two never struck me as being a likely couple, and there seemed to be little reality to their romance.

The only thing even remotely holding the movie together is its anti-poaching theme, but even that consists of a series of scenes seemingly spaced about twenty minutes apart where we see a dead animal, and Basinger and Perez get angry. I never got a real sense of what they wanted to do to make any real effort to improve the situation.

There is some wonderful photography of both the African landscape and wildlife, but aside from that this movie is a tremendous disappointment. I rated it 2/10.

I Dreamed of a Film Better Than This.

[anaconda-40658 · 2/10 · 9 June 2015]

I Dreamed of Africa (2000): Dir: Hugh Hudson / Cast: Kim Basinger, Vincent Perez, Eva Marie Saint, Daniel Craig, Lance Reddick: Watching the neighbours mow their lawns is more exciting than this film. Title indicates prosperity and stars Kim Basinger as a single mother involved in a pointless fifteen minute sequence regarding a car accident and leg operation. Her mother protests as she takes her son and travels to Africa with her fiancé. She attempts to build a ranch but becomes discouraged when her fiancé prefers safari hunting with the boys. Then we are given useless subplots involving poachers, water problems, storms, a death, a walk home in the dark when the jeep gets stuck in the mud, an animal attack, a newborn baby, etc, etc. If we wait long enough we might see the kitchen sink thrown in too. Director Hugh Hudson previously made Chariots of Fire but he displays little of that talent here. Horrible acting from Basinger who is stretched in several different directions at once but never arriving to the ending soon enough. Fiancé Vincent Perez might as well have been replaced by a store window dummy for all the humanity he brings out. Seeing Eva Marie Saint in this after a rewarding career is an unfortunate waste. Also wasted appearance by Lance Reddick and Daniel Craig among others. Great shots of Africa within a film that should be fed to crocodiles. Score: 2 / 10

Beautifully shot

[castlekc4 · 6/10 · 14 December 2018]

Great story , even better scenery . They should've picked a different lead actress ... i thought everyone else was very believable

Nice pictures, weak story

[POG-2 · 3/10 · 1 November 2000]

The last couple of sneak previews brought films full of violence and so I was hoping for a change as I didn't want to leave the cinema in the middle of a film again. Although this film is very positive, I sometimes wished back to something more exciting. It seems to be a common misconception to believe that a life full of tragedy automatically turns into a good story. This film is the perfect proof for it. It swings back and forth between tragedy and bliss but there's no suspense. Even the tragedy is predictable and unavoidable. The conclusions that are drawn from all this are commonplace. Of course, from a personal, private perspective it's different but from the point of view of a film there's nothing in it. This makes me wonder why people seem to think that all this is more interesting if it happens in an exotic place. I guess many, many people have gone through all this and worse and no one seems to think it worthwhile telling a story about them. There's one good thing to be said about this film, however. It goes against the grain of modern film producing. It's quiet and the acting is toned down.

Amazing Kim Basinger!

[andre_giao · 8/10 · 14 July 2000]

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.

...and the point was???

[rtd_u_4_utter_underappreciation · 1/10 · 14 May 2003]

follow your mother advice, stay home and never do anything daring, exciting or new. that's the message i got from 'i dreamed of africa'. twice kuki's mother tells her how it is, kuki doesn't obey and loved ones start dropping like flies. so the movie seemed to reverse it's premise completely.

and furthermore, there's nothing really interesting going on in africa, unless you like seeing pointless deaths and lots of crying after. the acting is, really, just awful. the supposedly italian pair sound more like danish, and why the heck are they talking english in italy, if the director has gone through the trouble of having the african natives speak their own language? it's beyond comprehension.

the deaths make this movie a very depressing one, and the promised 'great shots from africa, just like you were there' are completely missing. i must tell you, i don't really understand the bit about the illegal hunting either. the man, paolo or whatever is going hunting or fishing all the time, so it's not really an ethical point for him...then what is it? maybe somebody would like to explain it to me. but for sure, even if you were hunting to eat, you don't have to spend your entire living hours to do so, do you? the man is obviously obsessed with guns, and teaches a small kid to use a gun as well.

the plot is childisly predictable. 'oh, oh, now the kid goes to play with the poisonous snakes after his mother just warned him about it! i WONDER what's going to happen.' the dialogue is dull, and there is zero character developement for some side roles that might have saved at least a bit of the movie, for example daniel craig and lance reddick are completely ignored and wasted.

'i dreamed of africa' is a boring and just an incredibly naive, shallow, depressing and stupid movie.

1/10

I could relate....

[elizabethbennett · 20 February 2003]

I caught this movie on Bravo last night and I asked myself why I never saw it earlier. It was a true story about an Italian socialite named Kuki Gallman. The movie begins with her out on the town with friends and they have a car accident. As Kuki was recovering from the accident, she begins to wonder if there is any purpose in life out there and if so, what is it? It was like the accident was a major turning point, wake-up call or something that made her yearn for something more than what she had. She falls in love and marries this man who is going to Africa to live on a ranch. Kuki remembered learning about Africa as a child and against her mother's better judgement, she packs up herself and child and moves to Kenya. We see that she is going through many transitions and adjustments from the gleeming socialite to the devastating wiles of Kenya. We hear her say that she wondered what she had gotten herself in to. This was a woman who was chasing poachers, caring for a ranch and having to do a lot on her own as her husband was gone often, nothing that she had grown acustomed to in Italy. However, we saw her grow as a person and as she was growing, she was fufilling what she desired, life with a little bit of meaning. It was tragic when her husband and son both died and so close in time. However, it is people like Kuki who should be appreciated as they work for the good of others and try to make this world a better place. I saw the differences in Kuki from beginning to end as she dealt with frustrations, growing pains and all ingredients that prepare us for our purpose out there. Something I can completely relate to at this point in my own life.

I thought the acting was great, Kim Basinger did an exceptional job. I thought the music was great; I liked the version of "The Rivers of Babylon" and the shots of Kenya that are breathtaking. I have two friends from Africa and my mother did some mission work there three years ago so I have learned about some of the culture and way of life there. Africa is dry and hot but beautiful as well. Kudos to all involved in this movie and to Kuki Gallman for sharing her story.

Dream is the right for it

[skopi · 3/10 · 8 May 2000]

This movie did play like a dream or maybe even like an autobiography - it was disjointed. It was basically a bunch of mostly random scenes throughout this lady's life and you wonder what is going to happen next to her. The scenery was beautiful, but that is the only redeeming value I could find. Wait for it to come to tv.