TAKE A GIRL LIKE YOU is a filmed adaptation of a Kingsley Amis novel, directed by theatre figurehead Jonatha Miller. It's a slight and unwieldy affair that I found rather appalling in terms of subject matter - as cold and unyielding as a film gets when it comes to a relationship drama. Only the activities of the youthful cast lift this above tedium, with Hayley Mills in particular lovely and deserving better. Elsewhere, taciturn Oliver Reed still feels like a heavy from one of his earlier Hammer films, Noel Harrison is a real creep and gets too much screen time, Ronald Lacey is loveable, Sheila Hancock negligible, and John Bird sleazy. The ending in particular is a big a gut punch as cinema gets without resorting to death or violence.
Review of Take a Girl Like You
