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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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91Burton And Taylor is not comprehensive or perfect as a film--the direction in particular is lackluster--but as a character study in both writing and acting it is, as Burton says of Taylor herself, “peerless.”
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88While no one will mistake Helena Bonham Carter for a twin of the legendary violet-eyed actress, she’s more than convincing alongside “The Wire’s” Dominic West, who brings a troubled Richard Burton to life.
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83Her voice seems to roam all over the vocal register, but she is compelling.... West will make you forget he’s acting.
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80What makes the film especially memorable, and equally flawed, is its single-minded determination to drive out all the sleaze and scandal that so defined Burton and Taylor's love affair. Ivory doesn't spin a celebrity tale here but rather a universal story about love won and love lost.
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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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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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80The result is surprisingly interesting, fun and, at times, even quite moving.
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75Burton and Taylor is a wry, bittersweet take on a celebrated Hollywood romance. [21 Oct 2013, p.48]
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75Though Helena Bonham Carter struggles to get Taylor's voice just right--it sounds more like a Madeline Kahn impression--she's a gas as aging party girl Liz. Dominic West's Dick, meanwhile, is a model of worldweary dignity. If only they, and their film, were quite as gloriously messy as Liz and Dick themselves.
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70West doesn’t much resemble Burton, but he embodies him, capturing a proud man who is both battle-scarred and spent, like a bullfighter who’s been gored a few times too many.... Directed by Richard Laxton and written by William Ivory, Burton and Taylor can’t help but feel somewhat slight, due to its structure and focus.
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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.