Zee and Co.

What film fan does not adore La Liz who more than anyone gives movies the sparkle they deserve. After all, we go to the movies to escape the rat race for a couple hours - no other reason, right? And Liz never disappoints. What makes her so great is the simple fact she knows she's the best and she always gives her best. Even in a pedestrian vehicle like this one, it is impossible to ignore La Liz in all her glory. She is what stardom is about and will always be the ultimate star regardless of what the AFI says. Number 7??? Give me a break! La Liz defines stardom because she is the ultimate star and the AFI can go blow smoke rings. Michael Caine, of course, is always wonderful with the ability to make you interested even if you do not want to be. He manages to be incredibly sexy without half trying and that more than anything else is why he is a star. The script is utter nonsense without a single redeeming moment in it but Taylor and Caine make the most of it and it is impossible not to care what happens.

Elizabeth Taylor's bitch character is so captivating, enthralling, and compelling that I felt compelled to do my part in making it known that this film, along with Reflections in a Golden Eye, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, illustrate a kind of woman who rarely gets her due in Hollywood film making. These three films are fantastic vehicles which capture, what I view as, an underappreciated angle of the feminine soul.

There's an intangible and honest quality to Elizabeth Taylor's character that is rarely captured by any actress. The character she plays in these three films make for great entertainment, storytelling, and are true to core sensual feminine qualities.

Off the top of my head, outside of Gone Girl and the Wicked Lady; there are too few archetypal female characters of this kind who exude this exclusively unique feminine character. It is an interesting archetype. An archetype which many of us have met, known, and had relationships with. They should have more stories written about them.

An original screenplay from Edna O'Brien about a married British architect whose extramarital affair with a pretty, placid boutique owner plays havoc in his relationship with his catty, cunning spouse--a woman with a wild-party lifestyle who spends her spare time plotting to arouse her husband in various ways. As the jabbing, biting Zee Blakeley, Elizabeth Taylor channels both her Leonora from "Reflections in a Golden Eye" and, most especially, Martha from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"; although this is really just a gaudy soap opera, the actress seems to relish her blowzy role, giving it some thought and also some pathos when she's not hooping and hollering, drunk or sober. Michael Caine is a formidable match for Taylor, though in an entirely different key; he adjusts his performance to underscore her rhythm and gives us the sense of a marriage that has seen many dark days. As the widowed mother of two who comes between them, Susannah York is rather an enigma, and O'Brien's turning the character into a woman with secrets in her closet doesn't quite come off (it plays like a stunt, and carries over to the finale). The piece is erratic and exhausting, but certainly not without interest, and Taylor is an entertainment all by herself. She holds the screen in a tight grasp, with no intention of letting go, and this is enough to keep the picture hypnotically watchable. ** from ****

X, Y and Zee is one of those rare films that can be perceived differently now than when it was originally released and be more enjoyable. However, one has to be in the right frame of mind. As a straight drama, it can be trite, uneven and a bit preposterous. But viewed as a kind of fascinating cultural time capsule with an over-the-top performance by Elizabeth Taylor as the scorned wife of a philandering Michael Caine, it can actually be quite entertaining and even hilarious. Never has any woman tried so hard to keep her man in the face of dire circumstances while simultaneously wreaking havoc on just about everyone. X, Y and Zee is a strange little film, but if you're a Taylor fan and don't mind overlooking a few flaws, you might find it quite entertaining and amusing. One thing for sure...this film belongs to Taylor; without her, it would be nothing.

Elizabeth Taylor is just amazing. She goes for this superficial, primitive bitch with every weapon in her arsenal. Her Zee is like Martha's - Taylor's character in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf - disgraceful twin. The one who probably never read anything, dropped out of school. She was probably disowned by her intellectual father and she went all out. Her performance is free of any literary constrictions - I mean this is not by Edward Albee - she can jump and roll at her own speed, at her own volume. Michael Caine feels like a pussycat next to her and Susannah York? She makes sense in a rather senseless character. An added charm is the appearance of the spectacular Margaret Leighton.