← Back to Reviews
in
Ash Wednesday
1973's Ash Wednesday is a lavishly mounted soap opera that suffers from a skimpy screenplay and sluggish direction, but is still worth a look thanks to a Hollywood legend in the starring role.
This overheated melodrama stars the legendary Elizabeth Taylor as Barbara Sawyer, a wealthy Detroit housewife who has traveled all the way to Switzerland to have a facelift, thinking it will save her marriage to Mark (Henry Fonda). As she leaves the hospital, she moves to an elegant swiss hotel where she finds possible romance with two different men, but is in denial about the fact that Mark keeps delaying his plans to join her.
The screenplay by Jean-Claude Tramont, who directed the 1981 Gene Hackman-Barbra Streisand comedy All Night Long is very sketchy, especially the middle section of the film where Barbara has left the hospital and moves into the hotel. One of the men who is supposedly in love with her, David (Keith Baxter) comes bursting into her hospital room the day she is to be discharged and starts going through her wardrobe, telling her what she should keep and what she should give away. He comes off more like a gay best friend than a romantic interest. As for her "romance" with Erich (Helmet Berger) , it consists of a lot of heated looks across the room before jumping into bed without saying two words to each other.
The plastic surgery scenes were very interesting and a little hard to watch and Barbara's three meetings in the restaurant with Erich (Helmut Berger) were fun, especially the first one where Erich gets slapped by his girlfriend and the restaurant comes to a complete stop while Barbara and everyone stare at him. But by the time Barbara is visited by her daughter, we know exactly where this is going, even with anther 45 minutes of running time. I was amused by the photos of Taylor and Fonda in the opening credits which were obviously made up of photos of Taylor's private life with Fonda's head imposed and vice versa. Pretty sure the first couple of photos were from Taylor's wedding to Nicky Hilton.
Director Larry Peerce made a much stronger impression with his work on 1964's The Incident, he just seemed out of his element here. Taylor looks breathtaking here with strong assists from Edith Head and Maurice Jarre's lush music score. For hardcore Taylor fans only.
1973's Ash Wednesday is a lavishly mounted soap opera that suffers from a skimpy screenplay and sluggish direction, but is still worth a look thanks to a Hollywood legend in the starring role.
This overheated melodrama stars the legendary Elizabeth Taylor as Barbara Sawyer, a wealthy Detroit housewife who has traveled all the way to Switzerland to have a facelift, thinking it will save her marriage to Mark (Henry Fonda). As she leaves the hospital, she moves to an elegant swiss hotel where she finds possible romance with two different men, but is in denial about the fact that Mark keeps delaying his plans to join her.
The screenplay by Jean-Claude Tramont, who directed the 1981 Gene Hackman-Barbra Streisand comedy All Night Long is very sketchy, especially the middle section of the film where Barbara has left the hospital and moves into the hotel. One of the men who is supposedly in love with her, David (Keith Baxter) comes bursting into her hospital room the day she is to be discharged and starts going through her wardrobe, telling her what she should keep and what she should give away. He comes off more like a gay best friend than a romantic interest. As for her "romance" with Erich (Helmet Berger) , it consists of a lot of heated looks across the room before jumping into bed without saying two words to each other.
The plastic surgery scenes were very interesting and a little hard to watch and Barbara's three meetings in the restaurant with Erich (Helmut Berger) were fun, especially the first one where Erich gets slapped by his girlfriend and the restaurant comes to a complete stop while Barbara and everyone stare at him. But by the time Barbara is visited by her daughter, we know exactly where this is going, even with anther 45 minutes of running time. I was amused by the photos of Taylor and Fonda in the opening credits which were obviously made up of photos of Taylor's private life with Fonda's head imposed and vice versa. Pretty sure the first couple of photos were from Taylor's wedding to Nicky Hilton.
Director Larry Peerce made a much stronger impression with his work on 1964's The Incident, he just seemed out of his element here. Taylor looks breathtaking here with strong assists from Edith Head and Maurice Jarre's lush music score. For hardcore Taylor fans only.