Butterfield 8

Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Eddie Fisher, Dina Merrill, Mildred Dunnock, Betty Field, Jeffrey Lynn
Directed by: Daniel Mann
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Drama
1960

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A Manhattan call girl (Elizabeth Taylor) starts a stormy relationship with a rich, married man (Laurence Harvey).

Review:

Tim: I was looking forward to watching Butterfield 8. I've enjoyed Elizabeth Taylor in most of her films and was blown away by her Academy Award winning performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. I figured since she won her first Academy Award for Best Actress here, it would be another stunner. I went into this movie really expecting to like it, but I left feeling underwhelmed and a bit confused. I understand that 1960 was a very different time and I acknowledge that some of the themes were risque at the time, but this is still an underwhelming film.

I'll start with the positives, which has to begin with Elizabeth Taylor. She's quite a talented actress and that is on display here. She takes what should have been a lackluster character and gives her this fiery passion and edge. Her eyes are smouldering at various points and she gives a performance that intrigues you. Her delivery of the shocking line, "I was the slut of all time!" is a great example of how she elevated the material. Now, all this being said, I'm a bit surprised she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. I acknowledge she's really effective in the role and emerges as the best part of the movie, but I'm not sure this was the best female performance of the film. She's admittedly quite good, so I'm not too concerned about it.

I thought the rest of the cast let the movie down. Laurence Harvey was woefully miscast. I never bought his performance as this character for a second. The character needed to be appear effortless, to have an easy charm about him. Harvey looks like it took everything he had to stay up-to-speed with Taylor. Whereas Taylor lifts her character up through her performance, Harvey holds his back. He wasn't very fascinating or compelling. It's hard to quantify how much this hurts the movie. The whole film builds to a big climactic moment, but you have to care about these flawed characters. Harvey's average performance ensures this doesn't happen. The emotions of the climax are seriously blunted because of this. Now, to be fair, Taylor shares some of the blame, too. I liked her performance, but I never felt truly connected to her character. I don't want you to think I'm heaping all the blame on Harvey. He deserves most of it, but not all.

Another big issue I had was with Eddie Fisher. I'm really not sure what anyone saw in him for this role. He should have been the heart and soul of this movie, but he feels like an afterthought. His acting just wasn't very good. He had a few decent moments throughout the film, but again, he was miscast. He's likely a better singer than actor. I imagine him being married to Taylor had something to do with this, but that dynamic simply was not working.

The story felt too meandering, too melodramatic. None of the events of the film felt like they deserved the level of intensity the characters brought. We've seen movies like this before and while there might have been a little extra panache because of Taylor, it's not enough to overcome the shortcomings of the script. The movie looks impressive- the only other Academy Award nomination the film received was for Best Cinematography, Color.

I wanted to like Butterfield 8, but I just couldn't do it. It's not a terrible film by any stretch. It's not as bad as Elizabeth Taylor herself claimed to be, saying, "I still say it stinks." It's a decent movie, just not a very good one.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Cleopatra