Doctor Zhivago

In 1965, director David Lean made a romantic epic based on the Russian novel about a beautiful young girl who is passionately loved by three very different men -- a revolutionary, a mogul, and a doctor. The chemistry between stars Omar Sharif and Julie Christie was pulsating enough to stand up against the grandeur of the Russian revolution, and it had the kind of theme song (Laura’s Theme) that stuck in your head for years after you saw the film. It was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 5. Thirty-seven years later, PBS decided to remake it into a Masterpiece Theater episode with decidedly mixed results. The TV version lacks the scope of Lean’s picture, but the intimacy the smaller scale provides adds to the depth of the story by playing it out on a more personal scale. Unfortunately, the chemistry between stars Hans Matheson and Keira Knightly as Zhivago and Laura isn’t very strong, to say the least, so the TV movie never makes the leap from generic love story to world class romance.