Product: Ryan's Daughter (Two-Disc Special Edition) (2006)
Rating: 2.0
Lean Pickin's
Beautifully photographed but over-produced historical women's picture on an epic scale. Yes, it has its fans but so do those dime-a-dozen bodice-ripper romance novels on supermarket racks. Still, gorgeous cinematography and a lusher-than-lush musical score can't disguise the fact that this David Lean misfire is an overblown snooze of elephantine proportions. A pallid Sarah Miles manages to suggest what Julie Christie might have done with this part, horribly miscast Robert Mitchum plays a flower-pressing milquetoast and a dazed-looking Christopher Jones is so bad his voice had to be dubbed. However, John Mills received richly-deserved Oscar for his portrayal of village idiot struck dumb by plot inanities he witnesses in mute silence. No wonder he's speechless.