Burton and Taylor

In 2012, the same year that Lindsay Lohan played Elizabeth Taylor in the melodramatic Lifetime TV movie Liz & Dick, Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West starred as Taylor and Richard Burton much later in life in this made-for-BBC chamber drama. Burton and Taylor is set in 1983, a time when the twice-married and divorced couple reunited for a Broadway production of Noel Coward's Private Lives, a project initiated by Taylor, although she had never even read the play. That much is evident during the first rehearsal, as stage professional Burton arrives ready to work, and Taylor breezes in late, unprepared, and under the influence of booze and pills. But rather than descend into gossipy fluff, the film takes the quiet, underplayed route as it explores the delicate relationship of the one-time lovers, as recovering alcoholic Burton rededicates himself to serious drama and the woman in his life, while Taylor, very much the celebrity and paparazzi magnet, slips into diva mode. The actors are excellent here, suggesting rather than impersonating the stars, although there is almost no backstory here—so audiences need to bring their own knowledge of the couple's scandalous history. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)