Butterfield 8
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Movie Reviews of Butterfield 8
Movie Review: Depressing Film About Depressed People
Summary: 3 Stars
"Butterfield 8" pure and simple is overwrought soap opera. You would not care about these people if not for the strong performances by the two central actors who imbue their characters with qualities that are not present on the written page. Elizabeth Taylor as few actresses in history elevates otherwise mundane material into something other than. It's debatable whether she deserved the Oscar she won for playing Gloria Wondrous but there's no debating that she earned it. She had me won over in the film's opening scene where she awakens in another man's bed surveying the damage after another one night stand. Taylor outwardly was probably the most beautiful woman in the world. Her carriage in this scene suggests dissipation and internal decay and turmoil. Laurence Harvey's Weston Liggett is Wondrous' soulmate in the sense that he is a self-loathing Park Avenue type who married well and vents his angst through booze and indiscriminate affairs. It's inevitable when these two get together that sparks would fly but it's questionable whether you want to call it love. Like Taylor, Harvey imbues Liggett with enough pathos that you feel empathy for an unlikable character. I have mixed feelings about this film because it's not a pleasant viewing experience. If you do see it, watch two compelling actors at the top of their game.Movie Review: Decent film with a few shortcomings
Summary: 3 Stars
Of course Elizabeth Taylor delivers a stellar performance in this film, one of the best in her career. The viewer feels that she IS Gloria, not merely portraying the part. However, I was sorely disappointed in the acting by Laurence Harvey. I found his performance to be sorely lacking, his emotions forced and faked, and his overall acting style stiff and unbelievable. Sounds harsh, I know, but I wish the producer/director had found a better actor to fill this role, and then the film would have been much better. On a final note, this is one of the best films I've ever seen about a prostitute. We can't mince words; that's exactly what Gloria is, although she tries to gloss it over. In addition, the final scene between Liggett and his wife is fairly decent, leaving the viewers to surmise the outcome of their marriage with their own imaginations, even though his wife is EXTREMELY underdeveloped and has a too-good-to-be-true attitude about the entire situation.
Movie Review: Elizabeth Taylor saves this mediocre film
Summary: 3 Stars
Two desperate but independent minded proud people, a lawyer who marries into a wealthy family and a beautiful model who sleeps with men for affection, find in each other a diversion from wretched feelings of self-loathing. This diversion soon becomes an obsession, and then something more. But as their guarded exteriors become somewhat less so, they fall prey to the passionate, but often violent emotions they've inherited from their circumstances. Elizabeth Taylor's acting is superb and raw with emotion and mostly makes up for the incredulous, moralizing Hollywood ending which diverges considerably from the book and is not better served by the change. Still, it could have been much worse!Movie Review: Butterfield 8 Even Liz Taylor thought it was bad
Summary: 3 Stars
Liz Taylor was forced into making this picture. She even wrote in lipstick what she thought of this movie on the bathroom mirror (saw all this in a PBS interview) this is [poop].
And I agree. This is one of my least favorite films of her's. I saw it for the first time only recently (2002), and wanted to lie it despite her bad remarks about it. I thought... awww she is being to hard on it, but no. It was a very forgettable film. Watch it once to satisfy your curiousity, it is not a rewatchable film. Shame.
Movie Review: Liz hated this film.
Summary: 3 Stars
Butterfield 8 is pure camp, plain and simple! Elizabeth Taylor is the best thing in this uneven film, she won her first Oscar. Her character is anything but an angel, she drinks, swears, sleeps around with every man in town. I heard that Taylor tried to get out of making this film but she is a great actress so she knew she could pull this off. The ending is tragic and who said Eddie Fisher could act?! Definitely a movie to watch on a rainy afternoon.