Its about a Southern couple Maggie 'The Cat' and Brick Pollitt played by Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman, Brick is trying to reconnect to his athletic high school days and tragically injures his knee. The next day he and Maggie visit to celebrate Big Daddy's 65th Birthday who is played by Burt Ives. Brick and Maggie find out that Big Daddy has cancer and will die in a year, Maggie wants the large inheritance and encourages Brick to spend time with him to get in Big Daddys good books. Throughout the film its parallels of family struggle and relationship troubles.
I love Elizabeth Taylor as an Actress and of course a Fashion Icon, there is no doubt she looks absolutely gorgeous in this film. It got me thinking that if Maggie was a middle aged woman or just hideously ugly would people still like her? Elizabeth Taylor makes the role look so sexy and brilliant. Her character was so real in a way as she did things that were so childish and irrelevant to this relationship and she did things that were quite grown up and mature in a way, for instance she got quite jealous when Brick had a best friend called Skipper who got to spend more time with him, Skipper committed suicide and she wanted to ruin their relationship, which to me makes no sense and just a stupid thing for someone to do. She portrayed this character so brilliantly and with such instinct to the role.
Paul Newman was brilliant, he portrayed a man who lost all his glory days and was deeply unhappy. Its funny because he had a beautiful wife who loved him but was a very selfish woman. I haven't seen Paul Newman in many films, so I can't comment on he as an Actor too much as I haven't seen him in many roles, but I will watch him in more films. Brick as a character was so depressing and just sad to watch, but he is a better person than Maggie even though they are both incredibly flawed. The thing is both of them annoyed me equally so I don't have a favorite out of either of them.
Minor characters that are mentioned like Big Daddy was very good and the typical terrifying father figure, who deep down has a real insecurity like Brick has. Characters like Big Mama, Mae Flynn especially Mae Flynn were so annoying it was like fingernails to a chalk board just her voice was so irritating. I can understand the family aspect that was very Southern, or stereotypical Southern family. Being very friendly, polite and courteous, but it was very deep Mississippi accent, and particularly the style.
It was originally a Play by Tennessee Williams, and as we all know the works of Tennessee Williams is always brilliant and discussed everywhere. This film is fantastic to watch and I feel the best of Elizabeth Taylor's acting talents. Definitely give this film a watch for brilliant acting performances and gorgeous scenery set in the deep south of America.
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