Given the off-the-charts camp factor in the tantalizing prospect of Lindsay Lohan�playing Elizabeth Taylor, Lifetime might prize descriptions of Liz & Dick as "trashy" or "awful." So the network might harbor mixed emotions in reading that the movie about Taylor and her tumultuous romance with Richard Burton is actually pretty good, all things considered, despite an inevitably episodic nature and one glaringly unnecessary device. Such fact-based TV movies are rare these days, but this post-Thanksgiving telecast is just hammy enough to generate numbers rivaling the hordes of paparazzi that dogged the not-always-happy couple.
The movie's secret weapon, it turns out, isn't Lohan at all, but rather New Zealander Grant Bowler (barely recognizable from a small part on True Blood) as the dashing, often-drunken Burton, who classes up the movie in much the way Burton's classically trained Shakespearean actor played off Taylor's lifelong movie star.
Directed by Lloyd Kramer from a script by Christopher Monger, the narrative is framed, somewhat unfortunately, by having the two speak directly to the camera against a stark black backdrop, in what approximates a kind of posthumous interview about their relationship. While it offers another means of getting inside their heads, it has a certain beyond-the-grave quality ? exalting their epic love, yes, but feeling too much like something from one of the Mitch Albom movies Kramer helmed.
"I fell for you the moment I saw you," Burton tells her (and Bowler has the rich Welsh baritone down pat), one of several lines of dialogue ? including "My heart is broken, and you have the smashed pieces" ? seemingly calibrated to appeal both to those willing to embrace the romance and those eager to approach the movie like a screwball comedy.…
Ashley Tisdale Asia Argento Aubrey ODay Audrina Patridge Autumn Reeser Avril Lavigne Bali Rodriguez Bar Refaeli
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