Pasternak's disagreement with Soviet Communism was not actually political but rather based on his aesthetic views - he couldn't fully accept official literary doctrines developed from a theory of class struggle but instead followed his own principles - which I have to admit the book is not bad. The movie, however, is terrible in my opinion.
I'm actually not a fan or either. There are some good "set pieces" in the movie that are intended for the "oh wow" effect, but I found most of it a yawn. Also, I heard the translation of DZ was a rush job and is pretty bad, so I never made an attempt at it. And you know what they say about translations -- they're like women.