The story of playwright Lillian Hellman's (Jane Fonda) friendship with her fictional best friend Julia (Vanessa Redgrave) a left wing activist who opposes the rise of the Nazi's in Europe, and to a lesser extent her relationship with her lover Dashiel Hammet (Jason Robards).
The film three leads are all fine though somewhat mannered in their roles, and I wouldn't have thought Oscar worthy. In support; Maximillian Schell is good in a small role, though Hal Holbrook is not well used in a role that is against type. Further Meryl Streep appears in one of her first roles, but get almost no screen time and both Lisa Pelikan and John Glover also appear in early roles.
None of the relationships between the characters are fleshed out sufficiently. There are some nice moments between Fonda and Robards but not quite enough and the Fonda and Redgrave relationship seems one sided and lacking a real basis.
The film does build some tension on Hellman's clandestine visit to Berlin but the character is a little to awkward here to be entirely credible and the fact that many would be aware that she would continue to live a fairly long life after this time bleeds some of that tension away.
Director Fred Zinneman does an adequate job but I think the film pales in comparison to some of his other work including; High Noon, Day of the Jackal, From Here to Eternity and even The Nun's Story.
The fairly extreme political affiliations of both Hellman and Hammet aren't really covered or addressed in the film and their conversations never really touch on them. Instead we have the character of Julia (who possibly incorporated aspects from acquaintances) serving as an expression of their beliefs.
It's a fairly good movie but in retrospect it's hard to believe the film got 11 Oscar nominations including Best Picture for which neither "Saturday Night Fever" nor "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" were nominated that year. The film would win 3 Oscars.
The film three leads are all fine though somewhat mannered in their roles, and I wouldn't have thought Oscar worthy. In support; Maximillian Schell is good in a small role, though Hal Holbrook is not well used in a role that is against type. Further Meryl Streep appears in one of her first roles, but get almost no screen time and both Lisa Pelikan and John Glover also appear in early roles.
None of the relationships between the characters are fleshed out sufficiently. There are some nice moments between Fonda and Robards but not quite enough and the Fonda and Redgrave relationship seems one sided and lacking a real basis.
The film does build some tension on Hellman's clandestine visit to Berlin but the character is a little to awkward here to be entirely credible and the fact that many would be aware that she would continue to live a fairly long life after this time bleeds some of that tension away.
Director Fred Zinneman does an adequate job but I think the film pales in comparison to some of his other work including; High Noon, Day of the Jackal, From Here to Eternity and even The Nun's Story.
The fairly extreme political affiliations of both Hellman and Hammet aren't really covered or addressed in the film and their conversations never really touch on them. Instead we have the character of Julia (who possibly incorporated aspects from acquaintances) serving as an expression of their beliefs.
It's a fairly good movie but in retrospect it's hard to believe the film got 11 Oscar nominations including Best Picture for which neither "Saturday Night Fever" nor "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" were nominated that year. The film would win 3 Oscars.