Absolutely relentless with its content, overflowing with charged emotions & sustaining its intensity from start to finish, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a tour-de-force of sublime direction, ingenious writing & explosive performances that takes hold of your attention with its armour-piercing dialogues & never lets go until the very end.

The story concerns George & Martha; a middle-aged married couple, whose relationship over the years has turned very bitter & volatile. The plot covers one late evening in their lives when Martha invites a young couple for drinks but this new couple only find themselves caught in the verbal battle between Martha & George which escalates under the influence of alcohol as the night progresses.

Directed by Mike Nichols, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is…

There is a scene late in this one where Taylor and Burton square off for a moment. Earlier, Taylor had mocked Burton by relating a tale in which he avoided a boxing match of sorts. In the scene where they square off, they have just gotten out of a car and are howling at each other. They declare "total war" on each other. And for a moment, everything is framed just so that it looks like they are about to begin a boxing match. This moment perfectly encapsulates the entire film. It is sheer combat.

There are lies within lies here. There are verbal barbs coated with affection and sweet kisses coated in poison. It is an impossible maze of…

The adaptation of Edward Albee's theatre drama is a brutal, honest and unforgiving look at the breakdown of a marriage where the proverbial kid gloves are most definitely off. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton bring what many suggest was their real-life marriage onto the screen, tearing absolute lumps out of each other with resentful delight.

In one sense, this could be the next instalment of Richard Linklater's romantic trilogy, at a time when both parties are weary of each other, drained by the mere sight of their partner when they open their eyes in the morning. From beginning to end we are bombarded with a litany of barbed insults in awe of this tennis match of hate slugging it out…

I spent the great majority of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? respecting the work of the performers, in this case an acidic as all get out Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, but not particularly liking one single moment I spent with them, which I am more than well aware was the entire point. George Segal and Sandy Dennis gamely play the role of audience avatars for their hosts' unrelenting venom and the subsequent revelations of their own shortcomings may all so subtly point a finger or two towards the fourth wall that we are not as perfect or removed from the axis of action as we would like to believe. Being around such miserable, brutally honest people for two hours…