- Summary: Richard Burton (Dominic West) and Elizabeth Taylor (Helena Bonham Carter) are reunited for the 1983 Broadway production of Noel Coward's Private Lives in this BBC America/BBC TV movie.
- Genre(s): Drama, Movie/Mini-Series
- Show Type: TV Movie
- Season 1 premiere date: Oct 16, 2013
- Air Time: 09:00 PM
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 15
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Mixed: 1 out of 15
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Negative: 0 out of 15
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100Excellent actors playing excellent actors--and largely succeeding.
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100All of this would be so much Hollywood melodrama were it not for a superb script and stunning performances by West and Carter.
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91It’s a film that asks a lot from West and Bonham Carter, who deliver time and again in roles that could have eaten them alive. Instead we feast.
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80Burton and Taylor is intelligently winnowed down to a moment in time, firmly planting itself in the last days of disco.
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80It is less a portrait of two combustible stars, played with empathy and breathtaking control by Dominic West and Helena Bonham Carter, as it is a surprisingly thoughtful excavation of a love that is both undeniable and untenable.
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80This is how you honor show-biz legends, by hiring authentic actors to deliver sensitive interpretations (not caricatures), evoking the essence and burden of stardom without becoming a voyeuristic sideshow.
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60Burton and Taylor confines itself to the nine months of the tour, and while that’s a wise decision, it does mean we only get allusions to other aspects of their relationship.