Review of Far and Away (1992) by Ben L — 12 Sep 2017

Far and Away is a romantic drama that depends almost entirely on the chemistry between Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Luckily, they were still happily married at the time, so you can feel the sparks between them when the script is fighting to keep the two characters apart.

I was on board for the story, and found myself caring about this journey they went on, yet strangely I didn?t buy the motivation for either of them. It was contrived and seemingly out of nowhere, but suddenly we have two people with a common goal because the script needs them to have that common goal in order to keep moving forward.

I grudgingly accepted what was happening despite these issues, but I think it?s a significant flaw in the story. I liked the cast in Far and Away and, while I?m no expert, I thought most of the Irish accents were surprisingly good.

Tom Cruise in particular did a great job, and he also sells those fight scenes even though this was before he became the big action blockbuster guy. There are a few moments that made me laugh where I don?t think they were aiming for comedy, but despite missteps like that I still found the overall film to be decent.

Not one I?d recommend to everyone, and I probably won?t revisit it, but Far and Away is not bad at all.