A piece of sentimental tosh (Far And Away (DVD))

Member Name: darren55

Product:	Far And Away (DVD)
Date:	12/11/09 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Any film with Nicole Kidman is worth watching

Disadvantages: The irish accents

Far and away is a film starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman just when they were starting to get together after meeting on Days of Thunder. The film is based on the migration of the Irish to America, this film is set in the 1890 and culminates in the Oklahoma land grab in 1893. The film was directed by Ron Howard and was released in 1992.

The film is really a piece of sentimental tosh used as a vehicle for Tom and Nicole, it portrays the lives of the hard working Irish who came over to America to make their fortune. The Irish are portayed as good natured, honest characters who love hard work and enjoy a good crak (all those things are true). Its interesting in an abstract way that a film about the Irish movement to America is headed by two non-Irish actors?

The film starts in Ireland where Toms character Joseph Donnelly, is wanted for an assault on a land owner, he escapes to Boston along with his girlfriend shannon Christie they arrive and immediatly plan to go to Oklahoma for the upcoming land grab.

Meanwhile, Jeseph becomes a prize fighter and they live for a while in a brothel but Shannon never becomes a prostitute. The first hour of the film is ok, overlooking the truly terrible Irish accent from Tom Cruise and the rather unlikely simplified view on the world shown through the two young peoples eyes. The film has decent action scenes with Josephs escape from the brutality in Ireland (English are the villains again), his fight scenes showing his rather impressive body and the blossoming romance between the two.

However, after the first hour the film loses its way and rather peeters along until the films finale with the land grab, the middle part of the film is one the weakest half an hour from any film. The characters don't really do a huge amount, there's an attempt to crank up the tension with the arrival of some Irish who are josephs enemies and the reason for there flight in the first place.

There is the obligatory 15 minute argument, this is obligatory for any romcom giving the film a tension when the two main characters argue and split. The film moves onto the lang grab and of course the two get back together and throughs Jospehs heroics manage to get their plot of land and become a settled family. The film ends with this point and rather labours over the obvious that now this pair of dissident Irish will become settled land owners.

This film is overly sentimental, the accents are truly terrible at least on par with Jonathan Harkers english accent by Keanu Reeves in Dracula and the direction is limp, this final fact is a suprise for such a fine director as Ron Howard but one wonders if his heart was truly in the film.

Summary: Not one of Cruises best film and thats saying something