Julia is a schizophrenic piece of filmmaking if ever there was one. It can't decide whether or not it's a serious drama or a dark comedy. Only a terrific performance by Tilda Swinton in the lead part and a couple of decent bit part performances by American and foreign actors are all that save this pathetic film from rating just one star instead of the three that I mercifully gave it. In fact, the performance by the actress that played the boy's mother bordered on a caricature. Oh sure, there were some decent scenes, but the time between them was filled with inane dialog and implausible plot faults. There were too many unexplained lapses in continuity, including an absurd sequence of events in the Southern California/Mexican desert. The story is so improbable as to be ridiculous and the script is uneven and fractured. I will admit that the cinematography is decent, as is the editing. But to rate this film any more than three stars would be to offer a disservice to those films that actually "earned" a rating that was higher than that. Except for Ms. Swinton's excellent performance as a disjointed, delusional, dysfunctional alcoholic, Julia was a complete waste of this viewer's time.
