Verdict: Cardboard figures have adventures in Africa.

Details: Starring Kim Basinger and Vincent Perez. Rated PG-13 for sex, nudity and violence.

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Review: A better title for "I Dreamed of Africa" might be One Damn Thing After Another.

Whether it's car wrecks, lion assaults, elephants in the garden, windstorms, poisonous snakes or poachers, there's always something bugging Kuki Gallmann (Kim Basinger), a wealthy Italian woman who moves with her new husband, Paolo (Vincent Perez), and young son Emanuele (Liam Aiken) to a ramshackle African farm.

It's never clear why. Kuki justifies the move by telling her son, "I've stopped growing." It's the kind of vaguely selfish, me-first therapy jargon that makes you think she's inviting the calamities that befall her during her years in Kenya, including the violent deaths of more than one loved one.

Directed by one-hit wonder Hugh Hudson ("Chariots of Fire") and adapted by thirtysomething scripter Susan Shilliday from Gallmann's memoir, Africa never gets inside the heads of its characters. They may be based on actual people, but they're flat as cardboard.

You might also want to retitle it I Dreamed of a Better Movie, particularly "Out of Africa," another fact-based tale of a European woman struggling to make it on the Dark Continent. Not only does Kuki tackle many of the problems that film's Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) did, "I Dreamed of Africa" steals little bits from that Oscar winner a few too many times.

A few examples: A scenic tour of the countryside from a small airplane; Kuki's arguments with Paolo about his long absences while he's off hunting; Kuki's negotiations with the tribal chief to discuss management of the land; not just one but two emotional graveside speeches, with Basinger (perhaps unconsciously) mimicking what Streep did with a handful of dirt. Hudson should have found ways to avoid these echoes; his film looks puny by comparison to "Out of Africa."

When not being posed prettily in front of billowing draperies, Basinger is stuck reading Gallmann's new-agey observations about Africa, or marching around like a Big Boss Lady. She comes off surprisingly stiff or boringily earnest.

And amid all the episodes of grueling hardship, you can't help marveling that Kuki has managed to find expert hair and makeup stylists in the middle-of-nowhere Kenya countryside.

— Steve Murray, Cox News Service