X, Y and Zee

Out of bored habit more than passion, Caine erotically targets Susannah York, a vague country wife who may or may not be a widow. They begin an affair. Zee cottons on right away and does her utmost to play both ends against her full-figure-gal middle. Taylor's bitch-queen act lends a certain verve; she barges about the screen in a wardrobe of multicolored, tent-like horrors that suggest, oh, Genghis Khan in Arabia. It's a measure of the film's muddled sense of itself that Zee's early description of her rival--"a soulful slob [who's] always a little out of breath and sees beauty in everything"--is dead-on about the character and the normally lively Susannah York's performance.

Zee (like Virginia Woolf's Martha) is childless, and Edna O'Brien's script underscores how often the three principals call one another "baby." We won't tip the surprise-twist climax, but the ending is the nadir of '70s pseudo-sophistication, mindless technique mongering, and cluelessness masquerading as "adult" ambiguity. Not one freeze frame but a dozen... overlapped... with zooms in and out, yet. Turn on the lava lamps, get out the throw cushions, zap the microwave popcorn--this is a definitive trash wallow. --Richard T. Jameson

This movie is campy fun from beginning to end.

Michael and Liz are trapped in a sadisistic love-hate marriage until one day they set off for a typical party of the 'Swinging London Scene', where Michael sees and falls for the ever-so-sensitive Susannah York...pale,blonde,widowed single mother of twins. Liz will have none of it & with the help of her gay pal tries every trick in the book to win him back...suicide attempts,lesbian seduction...she'll stop at nothing.

Liz is at her absolute hysterical best,even the dreary Michael Caine can't put out her light.


It will pick up your romantic spirits...   July 5, 1999
Rosemary(freaner@earthlink.net) (USA)
Michael Caine at his unblinking best (he maintains that one of his acting tricks is to not blink at all during a scene) What does he see in Stella when he can have La Liz. Great sophisticated but decent adult drama. Watch it at least three times a year!


Liz is at IT again   April 17, 1999
Liz stars as Zee. A woman who will do anything (and we do mean ANYTHING) to keep her husband (Caine) who seems to be going though a mid life crisis, and also has a eye for Susanah York (who gives a rather interestingly dull perfomance. Liz shows a flair for comedy here, and this writer feels the producers should have let her show it off a liitle more. Im sure eyebrows were raised at the initial time of its release, because of its tone, but nevertheless, Liz is as always, an eyeful to see.

Michael A. Turner Baltimore , MD