ZEE AND CO. (1972) **1/2 Michael Caine has Elizabeth Taylor, and wants to have an affair with Susannah York. Well, I guess it was basically the '60s and people took a lot of chances, and when you take a lot of chances you're bound to make some mistakes. Liz is very much the Liz character of the period (desired and desiring, unsatisfied, intelligent, wasted) and Michael Caine couldn't possibly be more the eternal Michael Caine character (cool, calm, almost debonair but a time bomb just waiting to go off with unpredictable drinking habits and mood swings). So it's not going to be a calm film, though Susannah adds some of that on the side. The acting is all first rate, Liz being the most excellent, attractive repellent as a trump of existenz. It, the film, always seems like it wants to make a big grand statement, but never puts itself quite in position to do so, or offers up much of anything like one anyway. It's too bad when people are frustrated and always reaching, when they have so much. I'm not at all sure that's what they were going for, but that's what I got out of it. Lots of cool incidental music by someone who gets their guitar to sound like Jorma Kaukonen.
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