John Schlesinger's Billy Liar is about a young man in a provincial English town who lets his imagination run wild and make irrational decisions for him. His life is a mess--he's simultaneously engaged to two women and he owes his bosses money--but he daydreams bliss for himself as the leader of the fictitious Ambrosia.There are so many technical problems in this film (cinematography, audio, editing, etc.) it's almost embarrassing. And it was difficult to get through the first half, with its atrocious pacing, sloppy character introductions, and everyone talking over each other in thick British accents. It was hard to tell what exactly was going on.
But be patient with the movie. By the end I was flabbergasted. I was absolutely in love with the characters, in all their faults. You want to hate this habitual liar with his bouts of anger, but you can't. At the end, you just feel complete and utter compassion for him and his situation. There was a tenderness and sympathy evoked in me that I couldn't get around. This is a tremendous film, and it can move you if you let it.
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056868/