Far and Away

Mary Hope Willard

Feeder 3.2

English 102.060

April 6, 2007

Far and Away

Caryn James’s New York Times review of the 1992 film, Far and Away, is less than kind. She summarizes the plot and throughout her summary, belittles almost every aspect of the movie, without supporting her opinion with facts. She opens her critique with a theme she continues throughout the article: Far and Away claims to be an ‘epic’ event, and by her standards, it is not. James found the setting garish and the set pieces “blatantly fake”. Despite acting talents, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, she feels animosity towards the dialogue and the plot as well. James’s negative connotation is harsh, lacks supporting evidence, and fails to give Far and Away the credit it deserves for its disposition, ambience, and storyline.

The term ‘epic’, by definition, means heroic; majestic, or impressively great. James notes at the start of her review Far and Away attempts to be an epic film, but somehow falls short; “This film is as much an epic event as sitting at home watching television,” she writes. James makes several references throughout her argument to the connection between Far and Away and a “TV mini-series”, calling the main characters’ journey to American “episodic” and the general concept of the film “TV-for-a-very-big-screen”. The only idea one can gather from James’s criticism is not what makes Far and Away sub par, but instead makes one wonder, “What makes Caryn James so hostile towards television?” Television shows are often predictable but Far and Away is full of surprises. Kidman sees Cruise naked within the first fifteen minutes of the opening shot and it gets progressively more exciting until the credits role. The characters meet with deceit, success, and failure and in the end, find each other and a new sense of self. James may call this predictable, but most would call it satisfying.

Perhaps the reason James could not enjoy her movie-watching experience is because she was so distracted by, in her opinion, a mediocre set. The first quarter of the movie is filmed in Ireland, where James feels the “lush green landscape” was “shot in the picturesque manner of an Irish Spring soap commercial” which, for clarification, is guaranteed to give one “the fresh, clean feeling of the Irish countryside every time you shower”. James implies this is somehow a bad thing, but does not explain why. As the setting progresses towards America, she recounts the Oklahoma scenes as too typical of any western genre. She also thinks the fake snow is distasteful during a Christmas scene. In summary, James felt there was nothing unique about the shots of the characters’ surroundings. To refute her belief, with the use of the rolling, green lands of Ireland, Irish Spring soap is still as popular in 2007 as it was in 1992; so, they can’t be too awfully appalling. Also, there are few available techniques for making the Great Plains of the Midwest fancy or fascinating (hence the name, ‘plain’). James does not comment on