source: X, Y and Zee

I was very excited to watch X,Y, and Zee, since I absolutely love Michael Caine and the plot synopsis made me think Elizabeth Taylor would shine in a villainous role. I'll cut to the chase: this is a fantastic movie. But it wasn't at all what I was led to believe. According to IMDb, Liz plays a "venomous and amoral" woman who "tries, any way she can, to break up the blossoming romance" between Michael Caine and Susannah York. That sounds fun, but that isn't the story. Liz and Michael are a happy, sexy married couple, but for no reason exposed at the time, Michael hits heavily on Susannah at a party. He tells her he wants to have an affair with her, and Liz can smell trouble from across the room, so she strikes up a conversation with the soon-to-be other woman and tries to stress how happy their marriage is. It doesn't work, and soon Michael and Susannah have an affair. Here's where it gets fascinating. There's much more than a love triangle in this movie. It's a movie about two couples: Michael and Liz, and Michael and Susannah. At first, the dynamics seem completely different. With Liz, there's fighting, quips, screams, violence, and drama. With Susannah, there's quiet, calm, and domesticity. As the movie continues, the black and white blends into intriguing grays. Susannah starts to show the promise of drama; Liz shows her deeper love and desire for a quiet family life. The realism makes you cringe. It's almost embarrassing to watch because you feel like you're intruding on their lives. And the most interesting part of the story? Liz knows her husband has a mistress. He comes and goes as he pleases, and although a divorce is not threatened or promised, no one seems to ask the question, "Why can't you choose?" He doesn't leave his wife; he just inserts another woman into the picture. This gives Liz hope. This is her motivation. Whatever she does to try and get him back is motivated by intense love. It's beautiful and sad, and it makes you question how far you'd go to keep the love of your life. By the way, I didn't give any spoilers. Everything I described is shown to the audience during the first 20-30 minutes of the movie, so don't worry. X,Y, and Zee is the type of movie that makes you want to talk about it afterwards. I loved it. I loved how it made me think about the characters, the questions it posed, and the unexpected sympathies it drew. And earning great respect in my book, the movie shies away from nudity or sex scenes, but it's incredibly steamy. Put the kids to bed and watch this one with your honeybun. It'll be a lot of fun!

I have an iron-clad rule that any movie with slo-mo is a dog. It's usually a bad sports-themed movie that needs slo-mo to make things seem more dramatic than they really are. It could be a romantic movie where two lovers ran slo-mo across a beach toward each other's out-stretched arms. In this case it's two lovers playing a sport (ping-pong) over the opening credits. And sure enough, the movie is a bowzer. Especially laughable is watching two members of the Elvis Presley generation cavorting to faux rock & roll. There's a little fake Beatles (OK, Ravi Shankar) and some fake Led Zeppelin, and who knows what else. Susannah York is as inert is radon. At certain points I thought Michael Caine was about to fall asleep. At least Liz games it up in that fright wig. She deserved better material.

Elizabeth Taylor's bitch character is so captivating, enthralling, and compelling that I felt compelled to do my part in making it known that this film, along with Reflections in a Golden Eye, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, illustrate a kind of woman who rarely gets her due in Hollywood film making. These three films are fantastic vehicles which capture, what I view as, an underappreciated angle of the feminine soul. There's an intangible and honest quality to Elizabeth Taylor's character that is rarely captured by any actress. The character she plays in these three films make for great entertainment, storytelling, and are true to core sensual feminine qualities. Off the top of my head, outside of Gone Girl and the Wicked Lady; there are too few archetypal female characters of this kind who exude this exclusively unique feminine character. It is an interesting archetype. An archetype which many of us have met, known, and had relationships with. They should have more stories written about them.

I only came here to see La Liz in caftans and big hair and violet eye shadow overload, playing her tabloid self, and I leave satisfied. Michael Caine transforms from Stella's (Susannah York) dream lover to a Peckham vulgarian husband, depending on a woman that happens to be next to him. Caine and Taylor are fun to watch, while Susannah York's Stella, looking like a Pre-Raphaelite princess, seems out of place surrounded by the garish furniture and over the top costumes. A really horrible production design that makes a great backdrop for Zee (Taylor) and she wallows in it. You cannot not like the soap opera quality of it. The film can't decide whether it's a drama or a comedy, but I guess Susannah York's character somehow keeps it balanced, preventing it from being utterly silly.

X, Y and Zee is one of those rare films that can be perceived differently now than when it was originally released and be more enjoyable. However, one has to be in the right frame of mind. As a straight drama, it can be trite, uneven and a bit preposterous. But viewed as a kind of fascinating cultural time capsule with an over-the-top performance by Elizabeth Taylor as the scorned wife of a philandering Michael Caine, it can actually be quite entertaining and even hilarious. Never has any woman tried so hard to keep her man in the face of dire circumstances while simultaneously wreaking havoc on just about everyone. X, Y and Zee is a strange little film, but if you're a Taylor fan and don't mind overlooking a few flaws, you might find it quite entertaining and amusing. One thing for sure...this film belongs to Taylor; without her, it would be nothing.

An original screenplay from Edna O'Brien about a married British architect whose extramarital affair with a pretty, placid boutique owner plays havoc in his relationship with his catty, cunning spouse--a woman with a wild-party lifestyle who spends her spare time plotting to arouse her husband in various ways. As the jabbing, biting Zee Blakeley, Elizabeth Taylor channels both her Leonora from "Reflections in a Golden Eye" and, most especially, Martha from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"; although this is really just a gaudy soap opera, the actress seems to relish her blowzy role, giving it some thought and also some pathos when she's not hooping and hollering, drunk or sober. Michael Caine is a formidable match for Taylor, though in an entirely different key; he adjusts his performance to underscore her rhythm and gives us the sense of a marriage that has seen many dark days. As the widowed mother of two who comes between them, Susannah York is rather an enigma, and O'Brien's turning the character into a woman with secrets in her closet doesn't quite come off (it plays like a stunt, and carries over to the finale). The piece is erratic and exhausting, but certainly not without interest, and Taylor is an entertainment all by herself. She holds the screen in a tight grasp, with no intention of letting go, and this is enough to keep the picture hypnotically watchable. ** from ****

Performances by the great actors Michael Caine & Susannah York, are eclipsed by Elizabeth Taylor in a performance that is brilliant. I think it is her best. She had unapologetically grown into the role of vulgarian she pretended to be in Virginia Woolf. As a young actress, she was great but I think these 2 films perfectly bookend her adult performances (It would make a most perfect double bill.) & she has never been so much fun to watch. The rest of the movie is well written & acted by the entire cast but it's electric when Elizabeth Taylor's Zee is onscreen. I wanted more of her. It's also a peek @ chic boho early 70s London plus we get to see Margaret Leighton in a dress w/ see-through bodice & later on, in a pink Afro wig. The movie is rarely shown anywhere. I haven't seen it broadcast in over 30 years. I bought the DVD, which is rare itself, and reacquainted myself & it didn't disappoint. It's as good as I remember. But you may have to be Gay to get the jokes & understand the campiness. Straight men won't understand how wonderful it is. Sorry boys. It's not for you.

Audacious, totally off-the-wall trash about architect Michael Caine, who is stuck in a hopeless, almost masochistic marriage with half-crazy Elizabeth Taylor, and begins an extramarital affair with Susannah York, who nonetheless has secrets of her own....Because of the movie's cast, and of the fact that you've probably never heard of it, you might think that it could be an undiscovered gem. Alas, this is not the case. We never even get a handle on the characters; any resemblance between the way these people talk and behave and the way REAL people talk and behave is strictly coincidental. York comes closer to portraying a recognizable human being, but not close enough. (**)

"Zee and Co." (also known as "X, Y and Zee") is a film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Caine. They are an unhappily married couple who obviously hate each other. He cheats on her, she yells and berates and schemes....much like Taylor's famous film "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". And so, if you like seeing sophisticated and well dressed people ripping each other apart and scheming and with a wild and sexy ending, then this film is for you! As for me, I generally DON'T like films which are nasty and vicious like this one. It's definitely a film that will not appeal to all tastes...as you can tell from reviews which are all over the place! Plenty of folks hated it...plenty thought it was brilliant. I just couldn't look past the fact that they were horrible people.