Butley

The theme and character are tedious. But the vigor of the wit in the language is stimulating and full of callous humor. Bates is good at this mixture of self-pity, anger and pain.

We don't pity [Butley], even though we should. He somehow doggedly weathers each crisis, and we even feel a sneaky affection for him. Maybe that's the way the role is written, or maybe it's because of the double-reverse charm Bates brings to it.

Alan Bates was superb in this final American Film Theater production about a British professor whose life is crumbling about him. He fights back with abusive humor in this well-made film.

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