Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is a film about boozing, arguing - and, if you look deep enough, it is a film about attraction, repulsion and love. Above all, for two hours, we see these people - 4 of them in total - energetically engaging in the art of boozing. I'm not dead-sure, but this film outranks any other movie I have seen in terms of how many drinks are consumed. These folks drink a lot, with the add-on effect of slurring, puking and incoherent speech. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is a very good portrait of a night of heavy drinking.
The boozing part is straightforward. The love and repulsion part is not. What do these people, and then I have George and Martha (a married couple) in mind, feel for each other? We witness the disappointment that poisons their relationship. The half-lies they tell each other; for petty entertainmant, just for the pleasure of watching the others' enraged reaction. Their daily existence is taken up by cruel jokes and evil remarks. Martha is a housewife who feels trapped in her role. Her daddy is the president at the university in which George is employed as a teacher of History. Martha offends him by constantly reminding him that he is not Head of the department. Their bitter verbal battles bear witness of a fucked-up version of mutuality and dependence. There is also something else going on: as much as they fight and bully one another, they seem to care about each other.
This, however, is not stated in any direct way, except, perhaps, for the outburst and possible reconciliation taking place in the very ending scene. Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf is not afraid to lean on the viewers' interpretive skills. We are forced to figure lots of things out for ourselves. There are a few slips, when things get too obvious, when the film resorts to explaining their relationship. But that is rare.
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