A great survival thriller that is also a sly, biting and funny-to-watch parody of America's political divide. Its social commentary is more intelligent than it is given credit for. The pointed exploitation film doesn't offer solutions or make a decisive statement, but uses the premise for entertaining fun with a clever ulterior motive. Gilpin also offers an entertaining character study of a slightly different young woman.

7 Oscars? For what? Best Cinematography, agreed. Best Original Score, accepted. Other than that, the film doesn't have much to offer. A much too slow told and uninteresting love story. By the end, I could barely remember if anything happened. The film seems like a glossy adaptation of a Rosamunde Pilcher novel, which is a shame because I was looking forward to this film due to Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. But all that is delivered is a shallow, interchangeable story for which the two actors are completely wasted. Had I known that, I would have preferred to watch a documentary about African nature.

I really wish the first half had been better. The music was inappropriate at times, the changes between locations and characters exhausting, there was too much pathos and too little substance. I didn't think I'd give it more than four stars. But the second half convinced me. The pathos turned into epicness and thrilled me into saying I want to see a sequel. The Snyder Cut doesn't make the mistakes of the theatrical version, makes a few new ones, but clearly remains the more satisfying version.