Out of Africa (1985)

Based on Karen Blixen's own account of her years in Kenya, Sydney Pollack's film is a romance about two people who refuse to belong to anyone. Meryl Streep's Karen arrives in Africa early in the 20th century in a marriage of convenience, and her bond with Robert Redford's hunter Denys Finch Hatton grows slowly over years of comings and goings rather than in one rush. That pacing is the point and the risk. At 161 minutes, it moves at the speed of the landscape, and the flight over the plains is the scene people remember. Choose it for Streep's accent-perfect, clear-eyed performance and a love story that is grown up about freedom and loss, but be ready for a stately rather than swept-away mood.