Who he is and who he used to be come together to guide who he believes he should be.
The official feature debut of a megastar in the making has overshadowed the legacy that this film should have: for its leading title character (Albert Finney) and not for one of the supporting players, no matter how notable Liza Minnelli is. Finney, having gone from working class to upper middle, is divorced from Billie Whitelaw, and beginning an affair with Minnelli (his secretary) begins to ponder what his life really is about. Location footage and some closeups of real people on the streets gives a gritty realism to remind Finney of what his life could have been but doesn't seem to awaken him to anything but gloom.
Given special "and introducing" credit for Liza bemoans the fact that she'd already won a Tony Award, performed with her mother on stage and TV and was considered a fashion icon. That's like saying that the film debuts of Mia Farrow and Barbra Streisand that year introduced them. There's no denial that Liza is a quirky but well deserved star, definitely fresh and a change of pace for the decade to come. It's hard to dish her no matter what she does as the effervescent person she is always pops through.
Finney is understated, perhaps undirecting himself, but he's also focused with a weird style of editing that jumps into pieces of a situation, paraphrasing ten minutes of activity down to 30 seconds. Whitelaw gets a much more complex part, world weary and too tired to put up a fight, yet forced to remain "up" so she can take care of their son. Colin Blakeney is excellent too, but the film overall is one notch up from those kitchen sink dramas of a decade before that confuse reality for entertainment. The scene where Finney finds Liza's wig in his bed will have certain viewers in stitches.
The official feature debut of a megastar in the making has overshadowed the legacy that this film should have: for its leading title character (Albert Finney) and not for one of the supporting players, no matter how notable Liza Minnelli is. Finney, having gone from working class to upper middle, is divorced from Billie Whitelaw, and beginning an affair with Minnelli (his secretary) begins to ponder what his life really is about. Location footage and some closeups of real people on the streets gives a gritty realism to remind Finney of what his life could have been but doesn't seem to awaken him to anything but gloom.
Given special "and introducing" credit for Liza bemoans the fact that she'd already won a Tony Award, performed with her mother on stage and TV and was considered a fashion icon. That's like saying that the film debuts of Mia Farrow and Barbra Streisand that year introduced them. There's no denial that Liza is a quirky but well deserved star, definitely fresh and a change of pace for the decade to come. It's hard to dish her no matter what she does as the effervescent person she is always pops through.
Finney is understated, perhaps undirecting himself, but he's also focused with a weird style of editing that jumps into pieces of a situation, paraphrasing ten minutes of activity down to 30 seconds. Whitelaw gets a much more complex part, world weary and too tired to put up a fight, yet forced to remain "up" so she can take care of their son. Colin Blakeney is excellent too, but the film overall is one notch up from those kitchen sink dramas of a decade before that confuse reality for entertainment. The scene where Finney finds Liza's wig in his bed will have certain viewers in stitches.