454. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Running Time: 134 minutes
Directed By: Mike Nichols
Written By: Ernest Lehman, from play by Edward Albee
Main Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis
Click here to view the trailer

A DOUBLE SHOT OF NICHOLS: 1 of 2

If you've been keeping up with the blog, then you know I've been in a bit of a slump, as of late. Last night when I popped in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", I was hoping for something that would break me out of my slump and "WOW" me. That's what I got!

The film is based on a stage play and actually only has a cast of four (unless you count the bartender, when the couple go dancing). The primary characters are George (Burton) and Martha (Taylor), a couple in their forties, who rely on games and bickering to keep their marriage fresh. When the film opens, we see the couple arriving home from a party, at around 2:00am Sunday morning. They're both a little drunk (Martha more than George) and they begin cursing at one another almost immediately. You get the feeling that this is normal around their house, as George swallows insults from Martha, as if he gets them on a daily basis. After a few minutes pass, Martha informs George that they'll be receiving guests and that they should be arriving any minute. Not really in any condition to receive, but not wanting to fight with Martha, George puts his game face on. The guests are Nick (Segal) and Honey (Dennis), a twenty-something couple, Nick being a member of the biology department, at a university, where George is also a professor. What follows over the course of the next two hours is a lot of awkward moments, fighting and the bringing to life of a fantastic script by Ernest Lehman, as the film is very dialogue driven, as it follows the two couple until the break of dawn.

I had seen "Virginia Woolf" once before, but I may have been just a hair to young to really grasp how good it was. Either that, or I just have a really bad memory, because I didn't remember this picture being this good. This film incorporates a lot of what I look for in a movie, personally. It has a very small cast, which provided me with a certain intimacy among the four characters and myself. The script is almost nothing but dialogue, which is another factor that highly plays to my personal tastes. The setting moves a few times, but for the most part we're in George and Martha's living room and I love films where we stay put. In fact, if I had to pick one thing to gripe about, in regards to this movie, it would be that I wish we had never left the living room, or if nothing else, at least the premises of George and Martha's home. When the film forces us into the car and into a crummy, little roadhouse, I kept wishing we had just stayed put. But that's nitpicking at it's maximum and really, it's no big deal.

Also, if you want to talk about top notch acting, look no further than Burton and Taylor and their performances in this movie. Taylor certainly deserved her Oscar and as far as I'm concerned Richard Burton was even better than Paul Scofield (who won the Oscar for Best Leading Actor that year, for "A Man for All Seasons"). It's not the best acting I've ever seen, but if I were forced to make a list of, say the Top 50 performances I've witnessed, I wouldn't be surprised to see Burton AND Taylor take two spots. They really laid it all out there and by the time the film came to a conclusion and the characters were finally able to slump their shoulders, it was a bit of a relaxing moment for me as well. The film is REALLY exhausting, in that it provides the viewer with a roller coaster of emotions and rarely turns down the intensity.

This movie really forced me to think, but not about anything but this movie. It made me wonder about the characters, as they took on a real life for the duration of the film and I felt like a third guest at the party. I felt awkward, right along with Nick and Honey, as George and Martha fought, letting obscenities fly and not being shy in front of their guests. For a while, I was able to really connect with Nick, in that I seemed to feel everything that his character was probably feeling. The film made me wonder about George and Martha, much like Nick probably wondered. Was this couple EVER happy? Was there ever a time when they weren't at each others throats? It's funny how this film really takes you around the to each character and for me, there were certain points where I identified and sympathized with each of them. I felt sorry for George when the film first started, seeing Martha as a nag who never gave him a moment's peace. Then Nick enters and I can totally identify with him, as he bears witness to this very strange couple. Then, later, George gets a little more vicious and I started to sympathize with Martha a little more. It makes you wonder why they didn't flesh of the character of Honey a little more, instead of making her a "mousey" wife, who couldn't hold her liquor and spends 90% of the film in a drunken stupor.

This film is very close to being perfect. From the dialogue, to the characters, to the setting, to the ways it makes you feel, it doesn't let up. I loved the little piece of music too, that started and ended the film and how when it played at the end, it kind of warmed me and wound me down a bit. I'm becoming more and more of a fan of films that are based on stage plays, because they almost always seem to appeal to me. Maybe I should actually start going to see plays.

RATING: 10/10 Screw it, I'm going all in! It's hard to give this movie any less than a full course rating, because it's just so good. Consider this one a "slump buster". Next up: "The Graduate".

MOVIES WATCHED: 370
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 631

December 17, 2011 10:12pm