Peter O'Toole can break my heart
I suppose that is the mark of a very great actor - someone who can rise above any material to touch something sublime and human and true. It really doesn't matter what I've seen him in, he always seems to transcend the material and bring tears to my eyes. He is the best of this movie. His reaction of stuttered connection to reality when he learns of his wife's death always breaks me open...and this from a sixties movie so riddled with musical cliches it can sometimes make me cringe. And in Troy, another over the top movie stuck in its era, he takes his scenes and makes them human and universal. When he works with Oscar material like Lawrence of Arabia, he's stunning,no less so when he's working with schlock like High Spirits. He's a treasure.