nathanbron

Taylor was an icon - the first actress to ever be paid $1m for a movie, married 8 times (to seven men, one of whom died in tragic circumstances) a close friend of James Dean and Rock Hudson, a campaigner and a survivor who nobody should forget.

Sadly though, this trite but nevertheless over-long and rather dull documentary glosses over most of the interesting stuff, bathes Taylor in an entirely one-sided glow of adoration and fails to really get to grips with who she actually was.

If you know nothing about her at all, think Kim Kardashian is somebody whose opinion matters and need a lot of entirely out-of-place 'uplifting' pop music (mostly from decades after Taylor was at her peak) to set the mood, then maybe you'll enjoy this. Otherwise though, unless you're a Taylor completist or really need to see Sharon Stone wearing a horrible pink plastic jacket, Michael Jackson's daughter surrounded by Marshall amps or Kardashian poised primly in a soft-focus apartment with catchlights bouncing off her plastic lips, you can probably give it a miss.

Much more interesting and worthwhile in my opinion is the recent HBO special, Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes. That actually treats its subject with the respect she deserves.

But apart from that I have to agree this was a major disappointment. Ep.1 looked interesting and I hoped it would all start to make sense in Ep.2 but it didn't happen. The plot is disjointed and there's too much "atmospheric" filler of vintage cars and supporting cast talking amongst themselves in cool locations without moving the plot along at all. And then every time Portman gets a few scenes and something actually happens... the episode ends! And of course the next episode doesn't pick up where this one left off and we have to endure another 15 minutes of nothing before Portman appears again. She does look good though and her 60s outfits are amazing - it's just a shame she's only in about 20% of the scenes.

5/10 because: Natalie Portman. It would be 2/10 and I would have given up after Ep. 2 if she wasn't in it. What a horrible waste. Of time.