"Out of Africa" is a languid affair delivered in measured tones meant to evoke the Kenyan disdain for hurrying anything. Based loosely on Isak Dinesen's memoir of the same name and depicting events in her life from 1914 to 1931 the story meanders from Denmark, where the down and out aristocrat Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) accepts entry into a loveless marriage with the sympathetic but unfaithful Baron Finecke (Klaus Maria Brandaur), to Kenya where she goes to set up a proper colonial plantation to prove her worth. Along the way she is humbled by the rhythms of both the native people and nature itself, undercut by the machinations of her disinterested, absentee husband and falls for the here-today-gone-tomorrow Denys Finch Hatten (Robert Redford) who seems to thrive amid his lowered expectations and teaches her something of the value of the moment.

But she's a hard sell, brought up in a strict environment where she was taught a version of life that is at odds with her newfound desire to seize the day. Like seemingly everything else just when she thinks she's about to take Finch Hatten firmly in her grasp he slips away and she's left to contemplate whether she missed out on her life while waiting for her ship to come in.

The Kenyan landscape as filmed by cinematographer David Watkin is lush and airy and awakened the wanderlust in countless romantic souls in 1985 much the way Freddie Young's work on Lawrence of Arabia had a quarter century earlier. Though not in quite the same league as Lawrence, Out of Africa as a film does manage to knock on the door of profound without preaching or succumbing to cliche. Winner of 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director Out of Africa reminds us to stop and smell the roses before their petals fall away.

I find this homage to composer John Barry's score to be a better representation of the film itself than the unfortunate trailer. If nothing else, listen to the first 2 1/2 minutes or so of the main theme.