Far And Away

Long before Ron Howard made racing pic Rush and just after Tom Cruise burned rubber in Days Of Thunder, the two united to crawl through this slick but terminally slow period confection. Cruise plays a lowly Oirish tenant farmer who heads to America with his landlord’s daughter (Nicole Kidman) in pursuit of hope and glory.

They find struggle instead – and so do we, as the ponderous pacing and studied gloss stifle the emotions instead of sweeping us away. Kidman and Cruise (husband and wife since Days Of Thunder) bicker and brawl energetically enough, but Howard’s bloated David Lean-isms sorely lack the ‘lean’ bit.