randb-4
Never having seen the original version of Dr Zhivago I can't really compare,but for me Keira Knightley just doesn't work in the role of Lara. This is a woman that a previously proper moral man would betray his wife for. That just doesn't ring true. Tonya was sweet,beautiful and loving, why would Yury risk that for this Lara? The chemistry just wasn't there. Am I also the only person that thinks that Keira isn't such a great actress? Lots of pouting and over pronunciation isn't a substitute for fine acting. Sam Neil was suitably menacing,though I didn't feel like he had such a hold over Lara. Kris Marshall, an actor that I really like wasn't convincing as the Pasha/strenlikov character. Hans as Zhivago was adequate, but so nice to look at that I can forgive him any acting shortcoming. My favourite performance was from Alexandra Maria Lara as the betrayed wife. I found myself swallowing hard and blinking back tears when she confronts Lara.All in all not a bad way to pass 4 hours of ironing-considering it was a free gift with the newspaper!
LTerry001
I saw Dr. Zhivago many years ago with Omar Sharif and enjoyed the story and acting. However, when I inadvertently viewed the later movie last night on Channel 13, it was so enthralling and the acting so real, one could forget they were acting. The actress who played Lara, and the actor who played the doctor were so intense in their love affair, you could just feel the passion! It was a wonderful mini-series and would watch it again. Kudos to the other actors of course, (Sam Neil etc.)as they also brought the story to life. The horrors of the war were all too real and graphic. Unfortunately, these acts of "depravity" exist today. In any case, I loved the movie and all the actors played their characters so well. After reading some of the other comments, I had the same question someone else asked; what happened to Lara's son Yuri (and her daughter?) Just before she was arrested, Lara told Yuri to run! Where was he running and to whom? How could a little boy survive alone? I wonder if the book answers that question and would really like to know.
Harm ten Napel
Having seen the older rendition with Shivago played by Omar Sharif I couldn't help but comparing Hans Matheson with his predecessor and gradually they seemed to become more alike. Especially in the final scenes with all the despair about the choices in life that had brought him to the end of it. A deeply moving story. It surprised me at first they had cast Keira Knigthley for this great epic, her being so young at the time, to carry such drama. But her performance is exceptional with a natural refreshing lightness. It's hard for a young woman to moan, so Lara makes the best of it despite her ordeal of having to cope with three men who all afflict her in such different ways and Keira neatly strikes a balance in showing us Lara's mixed emotions. Spoiled by a mogul played by Sam Neill, unhappily married to the revolutionary Pasha a.k.a. fearsome Strelnikov and finally seduced by our romantically inclined but still adulterate Doctor Shivago, Lara is not bound for a happy life and she pays dearly at the end which is so intentionally dreadful still solidly performed. Intertwined with this great love story is the background of the great revolution, which this work was written as a charge against, for many years the book had been banned so the story itself justifies it being told and retold. To sit it out is once again an experience that leaves you with a lasting impression about the relentless force of passion and the ever so harsh nature of man.
goddessofoddness
Kiera Knightly is a much better Lara. Julie's Christie was much too pure. Kiera's Lara is complex, and better. Julie Christie never was believable as a young teenager.Hans Matheson is no Omar Sharif, of course, but he is closer to the appropriate age.Sam Neill was born to play Komarovsky. So full of cruel, cold ambition and self-absorption.Tonia is so much better too.In total, the entire film is broader, and a much more cohesive story. There is no doubt in this film about what drives the characters. There is still no room for the novel's mourning for the death of the individual life, of nobility of spirit, of poetry. But at least here we understand better why Yuri chooses Lara, and why Pasha abandons Lara, and how little Yuri sees his mother vanish.
AD
