 A film in three minutes, Under the Volcano. If there was one actor I could identify more deserving of winning an Academy Award than any of his contemporaries, it would have to be British actor Albert Finney. And if forced to choose which of his five nominated performances was most deserving of such prestigious recognition, it would undoubtedly be his portrayal of tortured alcoholic Geoffrey Furman in John Huston's 1984 masterpiece, Under the Volcano. Right in Mexico on the eve of the Second World War, the story follows haunted drunkard Geoffrey, a retired British consul to the country who has spent a year separated from his wife Yvonne, played by Jacqueline Bassett. After her having committed an affair with Geoffrey's half-brother Hugh. Upon her miraculous return, the two attempt to reconcile their past grievances, but as each gruelling hour passes by, Geoffrey's alcoholism only makes itself more present, preventing him from being able to move on from the deep pain that plagued his soul. Based on the best-selling semi-autobiographical novel penned by troubled author Michael Lowry, the film suffered from a prolonged period of development hell, changing hands with numerous producers and studios before director John Huston, who had been attempting to adapt the film for more than 30 years, found a version of the screenplay written by first-time writer Guy Gallo that he was happy with. But despite Huston's legendary status as a film director, it's the performance by Albert Finney that pushes the movie into masterpiece territory. His portrayal of Geoffrey's self-indulgent, as well as self-destructive drunkenness, becomes hypnotic on the screen, and edges almost towards the theatrical at times. The sense that this man is haunted by inner demons, which he in turn keeps feeding through alcohol, is palpable throughout, and delivered with an energy and nuance that only a master performer like Finney could muster to prevent it from becoming comical. You realise just how controlled and measured the performance is when considering how Geoffrey's drinking is in fact simply a way for him to mask his pain and function. Finney's efforts at portraying the terrifyingly functional alcoholic verges on the sublime, and was described by film critic Roger Ebert as being the best drunk performance he had ever seen. While director Huston before dying stated that Albert Finney's performance was not only the finest he ever directed, but the best he had ever witnessed. But this in no way makes under the volcano in easy watch. It's three main characters are pulled apart from one another by a misdeed that cannot be condoned or condemned, and the strain of this sin is excruciatingly apparent in every scene they share. Geoffrey's inability to forgive his wife's misdeeds condemns him to us, the audience, and to those closest to him, with his lack of empathy taking him on a journey into his own personal hell at the film's climax. A journey that we also share as Geoffrey's demons slowly consume us, making us too feel like Geoffrey that we're trapped under the volcano.