Doctor Zhivago (2002)

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

It feels heretical to say this for I loved the original so very much, but this version is better. Different too which makes it not a remake as it presents the story in a different context altogether. Both equally valid.

I can't believe it how many people have rated this film so highly! Don't want to be a troll, but this version is just fake, plastic, hollow. All young good-looking actors with fake beards just can't get to grips with complex personalities of the characters. And everything just looks so clean... even when Zhivago is traveling with partisans. It also doesn't feel connected to Russia or Russians in any way.I can forgive the 1965 film for these faults, because it's an old Hollywood film, and even there the acting was better.Can't properly put it into words, but just felt there should be an antidote to the overwhelming majority of strangely positive reviews on this site. All this mini did for me was annoy me at the fakeness of the whole thing. The only thing the film was true to is Keira's pretty face.

One wonders why the BBC dared to challenge David Lean's 1965 version of the Boris Pasternak novel with a script by Robert Bolt and a brilliant cast. But the TV series has its virtues -- greater length, allowing for inclusion of more of the novel, and a cast that generally stands well up to comparison with the actors in the film who engraved themselves in our mind's eye as the definitive Zhivago, Lara, Tonya (Zhivago's wife), Komorovsky, and Pasha (afterwards the iron-willed and ruthless Bolshevik general). Although it drags a bit in the first half, the second half of the TV production is exceptionally moving. Keira Knightley (Julie Christie in the film version) exudes sexual attractiveness, of course, but she also captures Lara's initial innocence, her loyalty first to Pasha and then to Zhivago after Pasha disappears, and her emotional depths. Hans Mattheson (Omar Sharif) grows on you as his troubles mount. Alexandra Maria Lara (!) (Geraldine Chaplin in the movie) is splendid both as Zhivago's loving wife and as jilted and martyred lover. Sam Neill (Rod Stieger) is appropriately slimy as Komarovsky, Lara's corrupter and relentless pursuer. Only Kris Marshall (Tom Courtnay) falls especially short; he is unconvincing as the ruthless general. The Alec Guiness character in the movie, General Zhivago, is strangely missing from the TV series, possibly because they were unable to find anyone who could possibly fill Guiness's shoes. Also missing is Lara's theme, the haunting music which many still remember from the movie. I liked the second half of the TV series and am once again impressed by the fact that Keira Knightley is a good deal more than a pretty face. In fact, she is a worthy next-generation successor to the role of ranking female British star.

This version is a lot more faithful to Pasternak's book than David Lean's version. It is great. It doesn't have to compete with the David lean version. It stands up very well on its own. Ludovico Einaudi's score is every bit as good as Maurice Jarre's. I also think that Keira Knightley is better as Lara than Julie Christie was. I also think she's better than Andrea Corr would have been and I'm a dyed in the wool Corrs fan. It was sensible casting young actors who are the age the characters are meant to be at the outset of the story and then ageing them via makeup. One is a bit incredulous when one sees David Lean's version and Pasha says Lara is 17. Julie Christie looks the age she was when the film was made, namely mid-20s. Each actor puts a different interpretation on his or her character from the 1965 version. Bill Paterson makes Monsieur Gromyko less pompous than Ralph Richardson did. He's also quite charming where he pretends a knotted handkerchief is a rat for the children at the beginning. Sam Neill makes Monsieur Komarovsky more menacing and sinister than Rod Steiger did. He also doesn't have the paternalistic streak that Rod Steiger had. Mr Neill has also given older guys carte blanche to wax lyrical about Keira Knightley. He's done scenes with her and he's about 40 years older than her. Kris Marshall doesn't portray Pasha Antipov as Tom Courtenay's angry young man. He's shown to be quite a fun guy when he swings about ringing church bells which are standing in frames in the street to amuse Lara and her classmates. But he still becomes just as psychotic and unfeeling as Tom Courtenay's interpretation. But, as in the 1965 version, Zhivago is portrayed as a throroughly decent guy who starts off very well in life and his life ends sadly. This version also shows some grim aspects of the revolution such as mutilation, children being murdered and cannibalism, which of course was referred to by Alec Guinness in the 1965 version. This is a very good adaptation which I would recommend to fans of the 1965 version and even more so to fans of the book.