Russian Boarders

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2010)

On a superficial level it's pretty easy to dismiss this film as Lara O'Hara reflecting its debt to Gone With The Wind as the story of a woman who loved only one man all her life but slept with/married others but did so against the background of major social upheaval (the War Between The States/Reconstruction versus the Russian Revolution and World War One). It's also arguably one of the few major spare-no-expense productions where a heavy hitter like Ralph Richardson appears in the same movie as acting joke Mark Eden and Jock McGowran. It is, almost inevitably for late Lean, a film of images, often involving snow and if this is your bag you will love it. On the whole it is well made, well shot and the leads deliver acting-wise.