Being Julia
Director: István SzabóStudio: Sony Pictures
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Widescreen, NTSC
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release: March 22nd 2005
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DVD Review
Annette Bening's outstanding performance is the best reason to see Being Julia, a highly melodramatic adaptation of the 1937 novel Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham. With a prestigious pedigree (director Istvan Szabo and screenwriter Ronald Harwood share impressive theatrical backgrounds) and a stellar cast including Jeremy Irons, Bruce Greenwood, and Juliet Stevenson, the film's backstage and onstage theatrics take place in pre-World War II London, when the venerable actress Julia (Bening) fends off middle-age by romancing a stage-struck young American (Shaun Evans) in a calculated attempt to retain some youthful vitality while airing her own dirty laundry onstage in a glorious act of divine diva behavior. Treating life and theater as one big play in which she's the perpetual star, Julia's nothing if not a master thespian, and Bening's got all the chops to keep her in the spotlight. If the film isn't quite worthy of Bening's excellence, at least it gives her performance the showcase it deserves. -- Jeff Shannon
User Reviews
excellent movie - Rating: 5/5
Saw this movie on HBO tonight and loved it! Best movie I've seen in years (Great Ending) (Great Acting) I may even buy it. Kay
Annette Benning was robbed! - Rating: 5/5
Annette Benning displays all her talents and charms in theis briliant comedy providing her with an opportunity to revel in a character. For this splendid performance she was nominated for an academy award and no other actress in recent memory has deserved an oscar more than she does in this movie. All the critics raved about her performance.
Watch this movie and see a consummate actress at the height of her powers doing a a light comedy with such precision it will take your breath away.
If you have ever enjoyed the theater or the movies, this is a film you must see!
Annette Bening Was Robbed - Rating: 5/5
Let's face it: if you love movies, you pay attention to the Academy Awards. Fact is, they are beyond utter, utter, utter crap. Otherwise, I would say Annette Bening was robbed of the Oscar. I've never seen such a performance. Subtlety, nuance. Hillary Swank? Please!!
A CATASTROPHE... - Rating: 1/5
Who is Jeff Shannon, anyway - and who gave him his questionable credentials?
This film is a sorrowful disaster. Bening, usually a capable actor, is given too much rein. She embarrasses herself from start to finish. Very much her director's fault. Terrible script. Unremarkable from beginning to end.
Avoid at ALL cost.
Benning at her absolute best. - Rating: 5/5
This film plays homage to the lost age of British stage Divas and a time (1930's) when film acting was still viewed with snobbishness and the stage was a world of riotously overbearing performers. Benning is perfectly cast in the lead and is every inch the slighty unhinged stage Goddess. Speaking as a Brit I also have to say that her accent is utterly perfect, it surpasses Rene Zelweiger in her Bridget Jones role; of whom it has to be said, did brilliantly.
The film is very much the telling of a midlife crisis, coupled with the fear of fading stardom. The story takes place in the closing years of the 1930's, when European politics loomed large and cast an ugly shadow over British life. The story of Julia herself, is the life of a woman who has honed her craft of flambouyant acting so superbly, neither she, her social circle nor us as the audience is ever entirely sure of the boundry between real Julia and Julia the actress. Initially this pampered Madam is hilariously self-obsessed but learns to be more involved with her real world via a series of difficult events, her Son's coming of age and demands for honesty from his parents. An affair with an American fan who see's himself as Gigolo but is horrible out of his depth and the fight to remain No 1 in the face of competiton from a scheming young actress.
Julia discovers much about the difference between selfish longing and cherishing what you already have in real time.
Her journey leads to the ultimate performance in which she weaves all the strands of her personal struggle together along with settling a few scores and levelling some land. Benning is marvellous, givng a performance of sheer delight and carrying the film with ease, a chance she unfortunately gets all to rarely. She is supported well by a sterling cast of fine British actors including Irons as her stoic but slightly devious Husband, Margoleys as her gossip driven (and some might say, hopelessly smitten, lesbian friend).
For me the shinning support comes from Gambon as the ever present, ghostly figure of her long dead mentor who guides her through life and stage performances. Also Stevenson, Benning's faithful maid who is possibly the only character who has a "real" relationship with her employer and is able to cut to the chase and see beyond Julia's "performing", in ever scene they have together. Delightfully saucy, bitchy and a frivalous pre-war fun in London's cut throat West End.
