6 out of 6 people found the following review helpful:

HELP

A Customer from Minehead,Somerset, 2nd March, 2005

Absolute RUBBISH----please do not watch this DRIVEL---iet is AWFUL I had to give it one star to enable me to write this--it doesn't deserve it !!

Read all highest rated reviews

3 out of 3 people found the following review helpful:

A Theatrical Experience

FrankIV from , 26th May, 2005

A Great American Play in the tradition of Great American Playwrights from O'Neill to Mamet with all that you would expect in the way of high language, dramatic monologues, emotional intensity and grand themes.

Although, according to the credits, Albee adapted the play for the screen, it remains an essentially theatrical experience, however many times the camera peeps out from behind props, moves in for close-ups or undertakes discreet tracking movements. It is, though, a thoroughly absorbing work, the words are great and the actors speaking them are magnificent. It's more a filmed record of a theatrical event than a film, though.

Read all highest rated reviews

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Balancing Act

A Customer from Keighley, 4th August, 2008

Film version of theatre piece that remains an elliptical and somewhat unsatisfactory drama. Hepburn is relentlessly sparkling and as a result Paul Scofield plays her from the back court.

Read all highest rated reviews

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Zzzzzzzz....

A Customer from Northamapton, 28th February, 2005

I think this film should have remained a stage production. It was very boring, in fact I could not finish watching it. All I can say it would make a brillient cure for any insomniacs.

Read all highest rated reviews

*** May contain spoilers ***

First class film version of prize-winning play

A Customer from Lewes, 26th December, 2009

Although generally regarded as an important playwright, Edward Albee has not enjoyed universal approval and great commercial success with the one exception of the smash-hit 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf'. His themes, as exemplified in 'Tiny Alice' or 'Sylvia: or the Goat' are generally too unusual, obscure or downright weird to have mass appeal. In 'A Delicate Balance' a comfortable New England household, albeit with alcoholic sister-in-law and daughter with four failed marriages, is disrupted by the arrival of friends of 40 years, a couple fleeing a nameless terror in their own home, and who announce their intention of staying. In true Albee fashion none of the issues raised are actually resolved: we never learn what is the cause of the couple's nameless terror, or indeed what will happen to them, what are the consequences of Agnes' premonitions of madness, what happened to the son they lost, Claire's dipsomania or Julia's failed marriages. The extraordinary events do however lead to a radical re-appraisal by Agnes and Tobias of their hitherto comfortable lives. The atmosphere of mystery and existential dread really needs the immediacy of actual theatrical performance rather than the matter-of-fact regard of the cinematic lens, but having said that, it is difficult to imagine a filmed version being done better than it is here. Certainly one can hardly hope for better credits: directed by Tony Richardson (Albee had originally asked for Ingmar Bergman!) with a peerless cast headed by Hepburn and Scofield - fascinating to see such great talents playing together - Lee Remick ( and what a beautiful actress she was!) as Julia, and even the two minor characters of the long-time friends played by luminaries such as Joseph Cotten and Betsy Blair. The alcoholic Claire was to have been played by the great American actress Kim Stanley who was replaced (apparently on Hepburn's insistence) and is now played by the Canadian Kate Reid who had alternated with Uta Hagen as Martha in 'Virginia Woolf' on Broadway. She attacks the role like someone starving presented with prime steak. If one has any quibbles it is that Katherine Hepburn is perhaps too individualistic an actress to encompass the ordinary side of Agnes, and Paul Scofield is somewhat less than comfortable with his very difficult speech in the last act which demands an American temperament, basically foreign to his style. These however, are minor reservations, in other respects the production is impeccable. Extras include interviews with Albee, Betsy Blair, and the cinematographer.

Read all recent reviews

Period piece

FrArguile from , 25th June, 2009

This is a play put on fillm: there is no beautiful scenery, no dramatic action, only words. It starts slowly but when suddenly the dear friends decide, for obscure reasons, to move in to the retired couple of New Englanders and the alcoholic sister, together with the chronically divorceing daughter decide to object, we have a recipe for high drama. It is subtle, convoluted, compulsive and demanding. For those who really like theatre but don;t live near one, this is unrivalled stuff. Katherine Hepburn and Paul Scofield excess but everyone is good.

Read all recent reviews

ANOTHER MUST SEE PLAY/FILM

Paul McGovern from RUISLIP. MIDDX., 22nd August, 2005

Cathrine Hepburn in top form.Lee Remick Has never been out shone by anybody. gives another fine performance Joseph Cotten and Betsy Blair as the friends,are given no great part. Paul Scofield I just cannot make my mind up very stiff in the opening scenes but perhaps this is part of the weak farther he portrays.now Kate Reid as the drunken sister is a sheer delight.Must See. P.M.

Read all recent reviews