The Bridges at the Madison County is a movie of love, frustration, unhappiness, desire, and hope of a typical woman, mother and a wife. It is true that every woman has different kind of struggles in life and in different situations. In the case of Francesca, a mother of two college teenagers and a house wife, she has a family but she does not feel the happiness that a mother and wife should have. She is happy to see that her family is living very normally like any other families but she seemed to have a lot of unfulfilled space in her heart.
Francesca portrays a very typical woman in this movie – a mother who does everyday house chores and a wife who serves her husband, until when a stranger photographer came to ask direction from her. That is when her life had changed even for just a little time of experiencing the liberty of being a woman away from the everyday routine as a housewife.
I could say that Francesca was very much aware of those times when she and that stranger man met. She knew what she was doing not thinking if it was wrong or a right thing to do. What she knew is that she was acting like who she really is as a woman.
Francesca made me sympathize with her, maybe because I am a woman too. Although I really don’t know how it is to be in her situation. I sympathize with her for desiring the things she wanted for herself when she was still single. She met and married a man from whom she bore two children with. But she realized that in that marriage everything in her life changed as well. She was like driven away from the things that she wanted to do and the things she wanted to have. It is because the reality is that, marriage is a different phase in everybody’s life. But I believe that marriage should be as happy and fulfilling part in a woman’s life as she was when she was single. She still can achieve the things that she wanted and feel the fulfillment in her heart. She wanted to be whole as a woman. And that was her dilemma.
When that stranger photographer Robert came, she realized many things about herself. Aside from having feelings with this guy, she discovered that she can also have the things which can bring her happiness. She envied Robert for he can do things which he loves to do. Taking photos is his passion. Francesca learned that the desire of her heart to be happy is just fair for her to have even though she has a family to be taken cared of. She learned how love can actually bring a lot of happiness in her heart and that’s what she felt being with Robert. She laughed like she did not laugh in ages. She can be as she actually is. She was very happy and that happiness but sadly it just ended for four days.
Even though that event in her life was just temporary, Francesca did the right thing. As what I said earlier, she knew what she was doing. She let herself to act and be as whom she really is in that four days – felt and used liberty she had, loved a man so heartedly and cherished every moment with him… but she made the right decision in the end. She did not go with Robert which will make her leave her family.
As for me, Francesca had been very sad that she actually indulged herself to the wrong thing (which is true for she has a family). I cannot deny the reality that she really did wrong. It is just not fair for her husband and for her children. But it is not only her fault because her family has their fault too on this thing. Her husband seemed to be very busy about life as a family man that he did not notice how sad his wife got. They did not have the moments from which he and his wife enjoyed to do. They were like sucked into a life of having a family and live with it.
I learned essential things from watching this movie. I learned that building relationship everyday with loved ones is very important. Because, no matter how good a relationship started if not working it out everyday will be destroyed in the end.
I remembered a computer game “SIMS” which I really love to play because that game is a life game. Sims are people just like humans who also have basic needs like food, shelter, and love. In that game, a player should fulfill his/her sims’ needs. They need to be fed, sent to school, graduate, get a job, earn money, live a comfortable life with comfortable stuffs in the house made for them… they need to have someone to talk to, companion, build relationship with, marry and have family. These needs have to be always maintained high in percentage because they’ll be sick if hungry, frustrated if not getting what they desire to have or achieve or they will fight with the people around them if not. For example, if an adult male sim established to have 100% relationship with a female sim, get married and have children, they still need to talk, to play, to caress, to kiss, to hug and love each other and meet each other’s needs although they have differences in personalities. Same with their relationship towards their children and friends. It is funny because if they don’t agree with each other’s topic, you can see the minus sign above their heads which means that their relationship level decreases.
That is why humans should be working on to their relationships…everybody. In the case of this movie, that is what is lacking in Francesca’s family. Everybody has fault because they did not seem to reach out each other and open their thoughts and talk about things regarding everything. The percentage of their relationship has gone very low and poor. That is why problems occurred.
God has made man and woman to love each other and cherish each other. It is still very important to have prayer relationships. In Francesca’s situation, at the end of the movie, her children understood her enough that they learned from her and are eager and willing now to fix their own relationships with their own families. For me, that is what’s very important. Family is really important and a very essential part in everybody’s life. I admire my mother for forgiving my father for being unfaithful before. And that is because church people helped her to do so. We were young in that time but my mother said that we were a lot of help for her to overcome that situation. My father is a very good father to us now and I could say that relationships within the family have been restored. This movie is worth watching for. 
