Ryan's Daughter

Director: David Lean
Year Released: 1970
Rating: 3.0

Young Irish lass Sarah Miles becomes smitten with her former teacher (Robert Mitchum) and they wed, but he's not emotionally involved, so she has an affair with a wounded British soldier (Christopher Jones). The standard critique that the picture is overlong isn't completely out-of-line, but the complaint about the 'grandness' of Lean's vision needs clarification - yes, the intense beauty of Freddie Jones' cinematography makes this look like an epic when it's basically a 90-minute soap opera, but between the majestic scenes of moody Irish coast and the dominant performances (especially Trevor Howard as the picture's Priest and voice of reason), it's gaudy fun. The casting of Mitchum and Mills has both actors going very much against type and the pair adapt splendidly - Mitchum, in particular, doesn't seem the type to accept being cuckolded with such grace.