David Lean phones it in

Rating: 2/10 (30 January 2011)

Dr. Zhivago concerns a bright, privileged figure who should've risen to the ranks of the Russian cognoscenti, but the decades-long revolution consumes the entirety of his life. This long story tracks the random, glancing interactions of 4 or 5 major players. But those moments deliver little of the frisson they might. Director David Lean is on autopilot, and assumes viewers are interested. But the movie has very little forward momentum and is about as involving as a chart.
It never develops a center. And there's no getting around the fact that Omar Sharif is miscast. Even he was surprised when Lean offered him the title role. (He was seeking a smaller part) Sharif hits his marks and no more. He has no presence or weight; and he makes you wonder why a very long book was written about this vague, empty character. Additionally, a British-inflected middle-Easterner is lost in the middle of all this. Rita Tushingham, was apparently cast for her ability to bulge her eyes ambiguously for hours on end. Megahit 'Somewhere, my Love' is intoned continually despite the fact that it undermines things.