Bloated and inert

Rating: 5/10 (3 February 2019)

I believe David Lean is one of the true geniuses of cinema. From Great Expectations and Oliver Twist through Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia all the way up to the flawed Ryan's Daughter and self-important Passage to India.
But for the love of all that is holy, what is the big deal - I mean really - about Doctor Zhivago other than that memorably insipid melody?
Julie Christie can be hit or miss at the best of time, and this time those 1960s bee-stung lips and Blue Steel expression don't work here. Omar Shariff, so magnificent and regal in Lawrence of Arabia, just stares off into the dewey-eye middle distance the whole movie. Rod Steiger's accent changes at least 7 times by my count. And Tom Courtenay, well, if he's not the most inert actor to come out of England, I don't know who is.
The pacing is plodding, to be generous. There is zero chemistry among any of the actors, esp between Shariff and Christie. I never get a sense that the whole Russian Revolution thing is all that important, frankly.
The only thing to recommend in this movie are:
1. "This is absolute genius." "That's odd. I thought it was Rachmoninoff."
2. Ralph Richardson.
3. The cinematography of the snow.
This movie is for saps to enjoy love stories. For Lean fans coming off Kwai and Lawrence, this is a deep fall off a canyon wall.