Return Engagement

It is a story of a professor, her secret past, and her friendship with a young man (Joseph Bottoms), to whom she rents the upstairs of her house.

If you can accept the idea of Elizabeth Taylor as a professor, this is a good little story. It turns out she had a measure of fame in her past life, and it takes Joseph Bottoms' character to bring her out of her shell.

It was nice to see Taylor in a not-over-the top role, as an ordinary middle-aged woman, and the friendship she develops with a young student, as a remedy for her loneliness and isolation. 9/10

This made-for-TV showcase for Liz Taylor is worth watching for her poignant performance as a lonely woman almost finding May/December love, but scripter James Prideaux misses the mark with a screenplay that pulls its punches.

She plays a college prof of ancient history who becomes involved with a handsome student played earnestly by Joseph Bottoms. For starters, Bottoms, for all of his good looks, never achieved real stardom, his best work being lead in a fine movie "The Dove" four years earlier. It would take a real star or perhaps an unknown who could achieve popularity in this role, to hold his own on screen opposite Liz in what devolves into a two-hander of a play, with a very minor supporting cast.

Major defect of the rather corny storyline is that ultimately Prideaux paints a picture of Platonic love, not romantic (or sexual) love. Given the sexual freedom of the 1970s, this rather quaint approach comes off as wimpy, as Liz & Bottoms not only have no sex scene but barely any physical contact apart from the central staging of their performing a song and dance act together at a school event. This culminates in a bittrsweet ending that doesn't ring true at all.

When this aired in 1978, I approached with dread. Taylor was terribly overweight (as a fan, I preferred not to see her so swollen) and what I knew of the plot of "Return Engagement" made me shudder--a history professor with a corny vaudeville showbiz past? Imagine my surprise when this turned out to be so poignant, with Elizabeth Taylor completely convincing in her role! Something in this screenplay must have touched her--a lonely woman who has escaped her glamorous past, reminded of it by one of her students (Joe Bottoms) who essentially forces her out of the closet of her guarded, careful lifestyle. Elizabeth had given a similarly fine-grained performance in "A Little Night Music" (let's just skip her singing, okay?) as an actress looking for a way out of that unsatisfying existence. So perhaps the theme of escape and/or renewal appealed to her. (She was married to John Warner at the time, and had "semi-retired" to act the role of a political spouse, but her image remained larger than life. Eventually she returned to being "Elizabeth Taylor.") This is without a doubt one of the many curiosities of Elizabeth Taylor's career, and one of the most satisfying. Be prepared, she is plump. Beyond plump, really. But her hairstyle and clothes are suitable and flattering. If you are a Taylor fan--and I assume you'd have to be, to be looking up anything on this movie!--it is worth searching out ebay or Amazon for an old VHS copy.

I've been on an Elizabeth Taylor movie binge lately & thought I'd give this movie a chance. So glad I did.

As for production values, well, it's definitely a late 70s tv movie for sure, but, don't let that stop you from giving this movie a viewing.

As other reviewers have noted, Ms. Taylor plays a college professor who winds up renting an extra room in her home to one of her students played by Joseph Bottoms.

What I liked about the movie is I was never quite sure how the relationship would play out between the two of them.

Thankfully, the writers chose a common sense approach which proved satisfying.

Ms. Taylor looked great and wore "normal" clothes that fit the part.

Joseph Bottoms played his part very well in conveying that sense of a young 20-something who can change his life on a dime and then change it again in a heartbeat and not have any idea that those around him perhaps are confused and unsure how to react.

Frankly, I thought this was one of the best of Ms. Taylor's late career performances.

This is a charming movie that tells its tale simply and straight forwardly and moves along at a nice pace.

No it's not a multi-million dollar A production full release movie, but again, don't let that stop you.

It's charming and still relevant.

How do middle aged people move forward in their lives after divorcing?

How do they get over that "caution" in letting their guard down?

Ms. Taylor handled the role thoughtfully and entertainingly.

What was unexpected was the chemistry between Taylor and Bottoms.

Watch the movie! At the end you'll be saying to yourself: Now that was a charming movie and wasn't it great to see Elizabeth Taylor in a late in her career performance really present herself so confidently.