I am struggling with this review more than usual because there is a lot to like about this film and I don't want to dismiss it too quickly or tell you not to see it. No, my advice is to see it but understand its limitations and try to look past them.

This basic story is that of "Madame Bovary"--which, coincidentally, I watched just a week ago. Like Bovary, the main character in "Ryan's Daughter" (Sarah Miles) is a rather immature and emotionally shallow lady who ruins her life with an affair. But, there are many, many changes from the original tale--the least of which is relocating the tale to Northern Ireland during WWI. Instead of the somewhat moralistic and depressing ending, "Ryan's Daughter" has an oddly vague ending where no one at all dies! Yet, in Bovary (at least the book),practically everyone is dead by the time the book is complete! The biggest change, however, is that David Lean has managed to stretch this story--making it very, very long and rather slow-paced. This isn't all bad--as the film is a delight to the senses with its amazing cinematography and scenery. Despite criticism by reviewers at the time about the pacing, I don't think this is THAT serious a problem. Yes, it's too slow, but made so beautifully that I could easily look past this.

So what, then, are the more serious problems? Well, the number one problem is the exact same one you'll find in Bovary--there really are no likable characters in the tale. The title character and her father (Leo McKern) are, frankly, 100% awful and easy to hate. Even the wronged husband (Robert Mitchum) is easy to dislike after a while because he's such a flaccid jerk--no man is THAT long-suffering unless he's an idiot! Less serious, but still a problem, is the seriously confusing character of the Priest (Trevor Howard). He is so inconsistent and much of what he says and does seems as if it was drawn from a hat--especially the ending where he admonishes the husband NOT to divorce his slutty wife! Why?! A real priest might have admonished the man not to murder her, perhaps! The third problem is the music. While at times it's wonderful, too often it's used inappropriately--practically destroying scenes by dominating the film. It's used, at times, like a sledgehammer.

Now despite these serious story problems, see this film. I nearly gave it an 8 but after thinking it over, I realized that serious plot problems can't be ignored...not when they are that important to the story. What did I like? Well, other than the amazing cinematography, I thought the acting was almost universally exceptional. While some complain about Mitchum's accent, I thought he was just fine--even if he played way against type (a typical Mitchum character would have kicked butt, that's for sure). Sarah Miles was great. I was not bowled over by John Mills' performance to understand why he got an Oscar--but he was still very good. Leo McKern was fantastic. But why Christopher Jones?! First, they had to dub him. Second, he and his character were totally wooden (no this is not meant as an innuendo but a comment about his leg). You could NOT understand why Miles fell for such a man...a man with almost no discernible personality. I did like the townspeople and their reaction to the revelations about the adultery was exciting and savage. And so, despite flaws, there is so much to admire about the film--and I'm glad I saw it.

A final word of caution. The film is about adultery and features some adult sex scenes--think about this before letting young kids watch it.

David Lean is not quite at his best here like he was with Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and Brief Encounter, but Ryan's Daughter is a very good (though flawed film). It is better than most directors' later films and did not deserve the critical roasting it got.

There were a couple of things that weren't quite right with Ryan's Daughter. Christopher Jones, despite looking the part, is dreadfully stiff and wooden in his role, showing little involvement or range, by far the (only) weak link in the cast. And while the score from Maurice Jarre has its moments like the main theme, the tavern scene and the beach hallucination and is not bad music at all on its own, it is for me the weakest of his collaborations with Lean and doesn't fit within the film, sounding too inappropriately jaunty often (especially Michael's theme) in a film that would have benefited better with a lusher, more Celtic touch.

However, Ryan's Daughter is a beautiful-looking film, with grand settings, rich use of colours and Freddie Young's sweeping Oscar-winning cinematography (especially in the storm scene). It's superbly directed as ever by Lean, taking full advantage of the epic scope of the visuals and story and while deliberate he does succeed in making the story compelling and the characters interesting enough. The script from Robert Bolt is intelligent, witty and very thoughtful and never becomes over-the-top or slack, complete with a good balance of the personal, the historical and the political.

With the story, it's deliberate in pace but never interminably so and is often very moving (even if a few parts in the first half could have done with more meat),complete with the unforgettable storm scene. It is also one of Lean's more cohesive later stories, being less sprawling than Doctor Zhivago and less drifting than A Passage to India (which are also both fine films). The historical backdrop is very effective, more so I feel than Doctor Zhivago's, and the characters are interesting and intimate.

Apart from Jones, the performances are of a very high standard. Robert Mitchum was courageous casting and is a revelation in a different and gentler role to the tough guy roles he took on, while Sarah Miles is moving as one of the characters that evolves the most throughout the course of the story. Whether John Mills deserved his Oscar is up to debate, but what matters more to me was whether his performance is good and, while it is understandably one of the film's most divisive components, the almost unrecognisable Mills is very amusing and affecting as the village idiot. Leo McKern more than excellently portrays a hypocritical, cowardly and domineering father figure and Trevor Howard does a wonderful job providing the moral compass of the story. Barry Foster shows off briefly but is suitably intense and grittily dignified, likewise Gerald Sim's appearance is very brief but is very memorable.

Overall, a flawed but very good and undervalued (back then and now) film from David Lean. It may not be quite a masterpiece, but it is not even close to a disaster. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Shell-shocked - there's a reason nobody makes films of almost three and a half hours anymore and why using Irish actors for Irish roles is preferred, although John Mills is outstanding but he doesn't have to say a word. Great scenery and the storm during the recovery on the rocks must have been a challenge to film and ever so slightly dangerous. You should see this once if for no other reason than to have an opinion but brew some coffee first.