This film initially begins with a man and his young son riding on horseback through the English countryside when they come across some bandits carrying a female child against her wishes. While trying to help the young girl, the man is killed by the bandits but, due in large part to his speed and agility, the young boy manages to escape. The scene then shifts to several years later with a young man named "John Ridd" (Clive Owen) accidentally falling into a fast-moving stream and nearly drowning in the process. When he awakens on the bank of the stream, he realizes that he had been saved by an attractive young woman by the name of "Lorna Doone" (Polly Walker) who, by sheer coincidence is the same young girl he tried to help many years earlier. That being said, the two become attracted to one another almost instantly. The problem, however, is that, having been raised by the bandits and accepted as one of their own, both of them realize that they are on opposite sides of a feud between their two respective clans and any relationship between them is fraught with great risk. Now, rather than reveal any more, let me just say that I have never read the book that this film is based upon and, as such, I do not know how faithfully this movie adhered to it. Even so, I have recently managed to watch two previous movies based upon this book (a British film produced in 1934 and an American picture produced in 1951) so I was somewhat familiar with the underlying theme. Personally, I preferred the American version simply because it had more depth than this rather condensed made-for-television movie. But that's just me. Yet even though I thought the American film was slightly superior to this one, I must admit that I liked the acting of both Clive Owen and Polly Walker overall. Be that as it may, while I certainly understand some of the criticism leveled at this particular picture, I don't consider it to be a bad film by any means, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.
