So many learned visitors of this site have given their almost professional opinion on this movie, which is way over my head (I didn't know anything about the historical person of Gertrude Lawrence for instance), so I just want to give my heart's feelings.
Well, I liked the movie a lot! Maybe it's a bit long, and maybe there is little to no plot, but as a Julie Andrews vehicle and as a sumptuous musical pastiche it's absolutely great, full of famous and well-loved songs as well as (to me) pleasant musical surprises. Miss Andrews is at her (musical) best, her voice is lovely and crystal clear and her diction may be a bit exaggerated but at least you can understand every syllable that she sings, even in the high-paced numbers and the ones where she has to run back and forth or gets thrown around (as in the Jenny-number) and you can actually hear her pant and puff. I don't agree with people that criticized her dancing, for in my humble opinion she does it fairly well.
Miss Andrews is in this movie at her best when she can play the highbrowed, ad-libbing queen of society, sparring at high pace with Noel Coward; in other words: in those scenes where she can go over the top and act a woman who's constantly acting. Unfortunately she is less convincing when she is supposed to let her guard down and show us something of the real person underneath. For some reason (as I thought so too in many of her other movies) Julie Andrews lacks the charisma and personality to move me when the camera closes in on her, it all looks a bit awkward and uncomfortable, as if she doesn't know how to handle (the acting of) a real life person in stead of a make-believe or larger-than-life one.
However, I have to say to her behalf that she wasn't helped here by the script, for there was hardly any possibility for insights and character-development. And it's hard to sympathize with someone whose major hardships contain of spending too much money, estranging her little daughter and not knowing how to choose from a bundle of lovers. The comparison with that other contemporary musical movie Funny Girl of course is obvious, and as an actress Barbra Streisand wins on every account. That doesn't mean that Julie Andrews is less of a stage personality, she's (in my opinion) just better at place in the glamorous settings of a Broadway stage than when she's stripped of costumes, wigs and glamour and has to pull it of all by herself in an intimate camera close-up. Then again I have to say that the short scene of her and Daniel Massey from Private Lives was very well-acted and fascinating and proved that she maybe could have outdone herself when given the chance. But then again: here also she had to act that she was acting.
All in all, I enjoyed the movie very much. Although it's long, it never got tedious, the supporting actors all did fine jobs (for as much as they got any scenes, since it's mostly Julie Andrews who dominates the screen time), with a special mention of Daniel Massey as Noel Coward. What a pity by the way that his character stayed on the surface even more than that of Gertrude Lawrence, I really would have liked to see him work with a script that would have plunged into the heart and soul of Mr. Coward! I rank this movie 8 out of 10.
Well, I liked the movie a lot! Maybe it's a bit long, and maybe there is little to no plot, but as a Julie Andrews vehicle and as a sumptuous musical pastiche it's absolutely great, full of famous and well-loved songs as well as (to me) pleasant musical surprises. Miss Andrews is at her (musical) best, her voice is lovely and crystal clear and her diction may be a bit exaggerated but at least you can understand every syllable that she sings, even in the high-paced numbers and the ones where she has to run back and forth or gets thrown around (as in the Jenny-number) and you can actually hear her pant and puff. I don't agree with people that criticized her dancing, for in my humble opinion she does it fairly well.
Miss Andrews is in this movie at her best when she can play the highbrowed, ad-libbing queen of society, sparring at high pace with Noel Coward; in other words: in those scenes where she can go over the top and act a woman who's constantly acting. Unfortunately she is less convincing when she is supposed to let her guard down and show us something of the real person underneath. For some reason (as I thought so too in many of her other movies) Julie Andrews lacks the charisma and personality to move me when the camera closes in on her, it all looks a bit awkward and uncomfortable, as if she doesn't know how to handle (the acting of) a real life person in stead of a make-believe or larger-than-life one.
However, I have to say to her behalf that she wasn't helped here by the script, for there was hardly any possibility for insights and character-development. And it's hard to sympathize with someone whose major hardships contain of spending too much money, estranging her little daughter and not knowing how to choose from a bundle of lovers. The comparison with that other contemporary musical movie Funny Girl of course is obvious, and as an actress Barbra Streisand wins on every account. That doesn't mean that Julie Andrews is less of a stage personality, she's (in my opinion) just better at place in the glamorous settings of a Broadway stage than when she's stripped of costumes, wigs and glamour and has to pull it of all by herself in an intimate camera close-up. Then again I have to say that the short scene of her and Daniel Massey from Private Lives was very well-acted and fascinating and proved that she maybe could have outdone herself when given the chance. But then again: here also she had to act that she was acting.
All in all, I enjoyed the movie very much. Although it's long, it never got tedious, the supporting actors all did fine jobs (for as much as they got any scenes, since it's mostly Julie Andrews who dominates the screen time), with a special mention of Daniel Massey as Noel Coward. What a pity by the way that his character stayed on the surface even more than that of Gertrude Lawrence, I really would have liked to see him work with a script that would have plunged into the heart and soul of Mr. Coward! I rank this movie 8 out of 10.