Billy Liar is a fantasist, someone whose daydreams merge with and overtake reality. He is though surrounded by the entirely down to earth: his situation, his immediate family and his boss. The comedy entirely relies on the audience finding Billy with his fantasies, likable and winning, and indulging him in a way those on screen find understandably difficult or impossible.
Billy, in the stage version was played by the robust, virile and extrovert Albert Finney, whose likable cock-sure persona was established in "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning". It is was surely just a small tweak to make him a likable but infuriating fantasist and credible love interest, Billy.
Tom Courtenay though a very fine actor, far more subtle than Albert Finney, is given to appearing introverted, inward, secretive even sly. These are not at all attractive qualities especially in a fantasist. There is absolutely nothing about him attractive to women, he is a conventional older stay-at-home son who the fashions of the day - indeed socialising contemporaries - pass by. There is little to make him and his fantasies likable, they appear like wilful unattractive private delusions rather than of a public, entertaining endearing (and amusing) kind. Director John Schlesinger chose instead of Finney who had played the part on stage, an entirely asexual-appearing Billy and coupled him with Julie Christie, the hottest British screen love-Goddess of the era, possibly of all time, as his love interest (and Courtenay as hers).
Billy, as portrayed by Finney, is a believable and not uncommon character. How many women have loved but found they could not live with such a character? It's a very very common story - the (young man) loving, full of enthusiasm and cheeky charm but prone to impractical dreams. How many mothers-in-law have believed their son-in-law to be so?
The story relies on two pillars: one, that we find Billy in fantasy mode, amusing and indulge this. Two, that his girlfriend is credibly attracted to him - why else should she stay around? It seems that director John Schlesinger's re-casting choice has knocked away both pillars. Tom Courtenay remains one of the finest actors but here was wrongly chosen.
The supporting cast though is rightly chosen, composed of some of the best most solid character actors of the day. Wilfred Pickles plays the infuriated father exactly as would have been at the time. I remember just such angry conversations.
Billy, in the stage version was played by the robust, virile and extrovert Albert Finney, whose likable cock-sure persona was established in "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning". It is was surely just a small tweak to make him a likable but infuriating fantasist and credible love interest, Billy.
Tom Courtenay though a very fine actor, far more subtle than Albert Finney, is given to appearing introverted, inward, secretive even sly. These are not at all attractive qualities especially in a fantasist. There is absolutely nothing about him attractive to women, he is a conventional older stay-at-home son who the fashions of the day - indeed socialising contemporaries - pass by. There is little to make him and his fantasies likable, they appear like wilful unattractive private delusions rather than of a public, entertaining endearing (and amusing) kind. Director John Schlesinger chose instead of Finney who had played the part on stage, an entirely asexual-appearing Billy and coupled him with Julie Christie, the hottest British screen love-Goddess of the era, possibly of all time, as his love interest (and Courtenay as hers).
Billy, as portrayed by Finney, is a believable and not uncommon character. How many women have loved but found they could not live with such a character? It's a very very common story - the (young man) loving, full of enthusiasm and cheeky charm but prone to impractical dreams. How many mothers-in-law have believed their son-in-law to be so?
The story relies on two pillars: one, that we find Billy in fantasy mode, amusing and indulge this. Two, that his girlfriend is credibly attracted to him - why else should she stay around? It seems that director John Schlesinger's re-casting choice has knocked away both pillars. Tom Courtenay remains one of the finest actors but here was wrongly chosen.
The supporting cast though is rightly chosen, composed of some of the best most solid character actors of the day. Wilfred Pickles plays the infuriated father exactly as would have been at the time. I remember just such angry conversations.