Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 10/10

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (NR) 1966
Reviewer’s Tilt (10)
Adapted Play-131min
Special DVD Features worth a look-None

Before directing Catch-22 and The Graduate, Mike Nichols made his big screen debut directing this adroit adaptation of Edward Albee’s play “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Nominated for thirteen, and winner of five, Academy Awards, this dark tale centers on history professor George (Richard Burton), and his wife Martha (Elizabeth Taylor), daughter of the college president. At first George and Martha appear to be the average Ozzie and Harriet, an aging, well-adjusted, educated couple, comfortable with their lives and their love. George and Martha quickly shatter this illusion, as they return from a faculty cocktail party, to exchange a caustic barrage of verbal barbs. Just as quickly, however, the couple turns witty and civil when the young new biology professor Nick (George Segal) and his shy, but pretty wife Honey (Sandy Dennis) stop by for a nightcap. Unfortunately for Nick and Honey, the sardonic exchange does not disappear, it merely changed guise. Soon Nick and Honey find themselves helpless pawns in the elder couple’s sick-witted exchange.

Throughout the remainder of the movie, George and Martha dance their finely choreographed, oft-rehearsed dance of despise. The two alternate the lead, alternately dishing out and enabling the abuse, but they never miss a step. Thankfully, writer Albee’s sublime play translates to the big screen almost unadulterated. Taylor and Burton deliver his lines with great force and impeccable timing. At one point George proposes “Now that we're through with Humiliate the Host...and we don't want to play Hump the Hostess yet...how about a little round of Get the Guests?” This provides some idea of the precarious twist of uncomfortable wit that drives the action from start to finish. Albee’s stellar writing notwithstanding, the real star of this film is Taylor and Burton’s alchemy, converting Albee’s words into cinematic gold.

Ok, I will grant you that playing a pair of aging, drunk, selfish lovers may not have been much of a stretch. Both actors, however, deliver their lines with the chilling reality of a serial killer describing his most gratifying slaying. Often unpleasant and disturbing, this film never allows you to relax or look away. Simultaneously seamlessly smooth, and ingeniously rocky this is not a “feel good” movie. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” is, however, a memorable film that will stick with you for years to come.

Format: Black and White, Widescreen Anamorphic, Closed captioned.
Sound: (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Extras: Production notes.