RYAN'S DAUGHTER BY DAVID LEAN

1970 rating: ***

Starts out fantastic... The first hour centering on a young girl named Rosy Ryan (Sarah Miles) wandering the Ireland coast, dreaming of being married and growing up; sharing her thoughts with local priest Terrance Howard and courting aged, handsome schoolteacher Robert Mitchum.

On the peripheral are other townies including the girl's father, a pub owner; a village Idiot; and two revolutionaries. Rosy marries the schoolteacher and realizes her dreams haven't come true.

She has an affair with the new man in town: a young English war hero. This is where things wane, becoming a glossy soap opera.

And a side-story involving the revolutionaries and townspeople collecting guns on the beach during a storm makes the entire set-up forgotten. David Lean's direction is creative and the natural settings are gorgeous, but the script's only strong in the foundation... The rest is made of sand that drowns in the tide.