This is a challenging film but with wonderful performances from both Alan Bates and Janet Suzman plus the stunningly heartfelt and comedic writing of Peter Nichols and solid direction of Peter Medak, not quite as challenging as doing justice to it in a just a few words. Glowingly received as a stage play in the 60s, the film never had the same success and has, indeed, been little seen since its delayed release in 1972. At the centre is the near lifeless, severely mentally disabled, eleven year-old, affectionately referred to by the parents as 'Joe Egg'. Central to the events but also peripheral in the sense that this is more about the seeming imminent collapse of a marriage as the couple, understandably, have to spend more time caring and not contemplating euthanasia than on their own life together. Instead a fantasy world of characters and events is created, shades of 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf', that at least gives the viewer the spectrum of humour through which to take on some of the issues raised and reduce the impact of the potentially terrifying reality being presented and the limited options seemingly available. Not a bundle of fun, but very funny nevertheless.
