Billy Liar

Directed by John Schlesinger, Billy Liar follows Tom Courtenay’s Billy Fisher as he interacts with various figures and escapes from his dreary life through daydreams. Filmmaker Schlesinger, armed with Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall’s screenplay, delivers a relentlessly erratic endeavor that remains, for much of its running time, unable to wholeheartedly capture the viewer’s interest and attention, and there’s little doubt, certainly, that the picture’s arms-length atmosphere is perpetuated by Courtenay’s predominantly grating turn as the obnoxious central protagonist – with the actor’s larger-than-life work transforming Billy into a seriously irritating (and decidedly unsympathetic) figure. (The grating feel is undoubtedly compounded by Richard Rodney Bennett’s distracting score and a general emphasis on pointless episodes and digressions.) The tiresome vibe, which is admittedly alleviated by Julie Christie’s luminous (and all-too-brief) appearances as one of Billy’s many love interests, persists right up until the picture’s comparatively engaging final half hour, with the inclusion of a compelling argument between Billy and his father (Wilfred Pickles’ Geoffrey) finally infusing the proceedings with some much appreciated dramatic heft – with the too-little-too-late bent of such moments ultimately unable to compensate for what’s otherwise a fairly tedious piece of work.

*1/2 out of ****