User Reviews

Who gives us a truly remarkable, all-out, Oscar-worthy, showcase performance as a living-in-denial, abrasive-mouthed, fortyish and usually sporting that oh-so-disheveled-buy- me-a-few-drinks-and -I'll-go-home-with-you -but-won't-remember- or-care-in-the-morning- out-and-out-lush-look...with serious stability/maturity issues...And that, ladies and gentlemen, pretty much sums it up!

Swinton practically carries the whole movie on her more-often-than-not -slipping-out-of-her-dress shoulders! JULIA, both the movie and most of all, the character, will continue to ricochet around your brain, tumultuously, long after you've reached the credits. KUDOS to Ms. Swinton! Even before her Oscar winning role as the anal-retentive executive you love to hate in "Michael Clayton", she seemed like a very competent actor...and, of course, afterwards, a truly excellent one. With her ground-breaking, perhaps best of the year, performance in JULIA, there can be absolutely no doubt her acting skills are nothing short of legendary! The only other actor who could hold her own on camera with Swinton was Kate del Castillo (Under the Same Moon), who turns in a brief but incredibly intense performance as the disturbed mother.

JULIA, the character, reminds me of how the Supreme Court used to define pornography, "Totally and utterly devoid of any redeeming social value". What is truly mystical about Ms. Swinton's performance is that despite portraying a detestable and neurotically unpredictable human being, she manages to plant a seed of expectation and compassion in the viewer's mind. Throughout the film, there is a flicker of hope that, somehow, someway, things will manage to right themselves. JULIA certainly manages to pull the proverbial rug out from under your feet on more than one occasion. My hands are tied when it comes to discussing the final 3 or 4 minutes of the film.(NO SP___LERS HERE, NO SIREE!) but you absolutely mustn't give up on JULIA beforehand. Please, be patient! Everything hinges on that final scene! Soon afterwards, upon reflection, the real implications will remind you that things aren't always what they seem! Immediately after viewing JULIA, 6****** was my initial reaction. After all my cerebral dust has settled, JULIA rates a rock-solid 8********! DEC.29-21.

INTRO:

One weekend, some weeks back I went to the movies with friends intending to watch 'Into the Wild'. But as things go in groups, somebody had already seen it and before I knew it plans were laid to watch a film about a girl who got gets pregnant – I protested (I hadn't even read the review on IMDb!!!) but I ended up watching it anyway – the result being 'Juno' just blew me away.. the story, the acting, the dialogs and of course – the soundtrack!

Once again I was to go to the cinemas… this time I had no real choices - the other options were Jumper, 10000BC and Julia (I'd seen the other good flicks already). I knew from 'trusted sources' that Jumper sucked and 10000 BC didn't really meet our high standards ;) So it came down to Julia - I didn't know what to expect of this film.. THERE WAS NO REVIEW ON IMDb!!! BUT I got brave - maybe I'd learned a lesson after having ventured into the unknown with Juno – or maybe it was the 50% discount at the movies this weekend.. I watched Julia!

The FILM:

When I came out of the cinema I swore to myself that this would be my first movie review on IMDb – not so much for the sake of writing a review but for the fact that I'd hate to let a good film go un-noticed! And Julia is a good film, it's a very good film – for it kept me glued to the screen once I got 'into' the film – which happened about 20 minutes into the movie..

Tilda Swinton played an award-winner of a role as the ever-cursing Julia Harris, who makes it a habit of waking up, unaware of where she's been sleeping. You know, the ease with which she plays an alcoholic totally convinced me that she did drink all that vodka during the making of the film. And unlike her other films, the camera does not show her in that special way that highlights her lovely eyes supported by those high, rounded cheekbones. But you will still fall in love with her – and you will also cut down on the alcohol and cigarettes and give up any ideas of easy ransom-money.

From the kidnapper to the kid-napped Tom – played by the talented Aidan Gould starts off as a kid who is made to nap all the time, more to make it easy for Julia to manage him than to keep him from escaping. But after he has been shoved around a bit, Julia starts to learn how to handle the kid and keeps him awake a lot more, and you start to see some interaction between the two.

Julia treats Tom as a mature individual and their conversations show that the kid does have some mature ideas in his head, probably only put there by his millionaire grandfather who is also his sole guardian - but he is quite smart for his age. He also starts to display a range of emotions, more than just fear or anger. You have to see the film to realize how delicate these are. My favorite though, was the look on his face when he wakes up next to a girl one morning – I wont tell you where or with whom or how, as that would be a 'spoiler' …literally!

Well, these are the two main characters that really 'make' this film and around them you will find others playing short but not insignificant roles. I could go on to give you my observations of the characters and my guesses on their lifestyles and make psycho-social analyses. But those are the kind of reviews which restricted my imagination as I watched other films – they didn't help me so I figure it won't be good for you either my fellow movie-lover-speculator…

To sum up, the film has a simple plot that unfolds with time, there aren't any super special effects, no fancy camera-work and despite all that, it still appeals to me – like many other simple films have. Normally I'd vote for a 7 on 10 for it being so smooth, but I left the cinema thinking about other probable outcomes, as I wasn't too happy about the way it ended… It was certainly possible, but I still wished it hadn't happened – but then I wonder how else would I have made the end to this film?? For having created this conflict in me, I'd like to give this film an 8 on 10.

And for the doubtful ones out there, reading this review to make up your minds – I dedicate this, my first IMDb review to you – go for it, you won't regret it!

Eric Zonca directed the sublime 'The Dream Life of Angels', a beautiful story of female friendship and existential despair. 'Julia', his first film for 9 years, is equally powerful, but much less charming. Tilda Swinton is great as Julia, but her character is absolutely unlikeable; the plot, meanwhile, though harrowing, in places strains credibility, especially in its portrait of Mexico as a literal hell on earth. Yet Zonca's talent is also on display, and the story commands your attention in spite of its unpleasantness. The ending is ambiguous, potentially interpretable as redemptive, but not clearly so. I'm not sure this is a great film; I am sure I want to see more from this director.

Lately, I have become a big fan of Tilda Swinton. It started off with her villain stand-out role in The Chronicles of Narnia, then I saw her alongside George Clooney in Michael Clayton, where she stole her scenes. Recently, I saw her in her best work yet, We Need To Talk About Kevin, so it was just a matter of time before I saw Julia, and it's plot interested me.

Julia is a pretty straight-forward crime thriller. It has a lot of twists and turns, and it always remains entertaining and intriguing. You want to know what's going to happen to Swinton's character and the boy she is taking for ransom. Julia becomes more and more likable as the film progresses and we stop seeing her as a villain. Swinton does a magnificent job too. I have never seen her play a role like this before, and it's without a doubt her showiest performance, since Julia is the showiest role. Credit has to be given to the way she so casually makes Julia someone we actually root for as the film goes on. Not many actors would have been able to do this, but she does it gracefully, and she gets better as the film goes along because instead of just a cartoon that we first saw in the beginning, we see a woman with fears and real feelings as well.

Now, the film isn't perfect... far from it. It feels sort of disjointed. Like I said, Swinton easily slips into another persona, but without any help from the script. Many films make it really believable the way a character slips into different attitudes, but this film doesn't really. Swinton does sort of transition it, but behind her incredible performance, you can easily see that the script expects us to believe the way this character starts acting differently. Too fast, without any real depth and not subtle, or even fitting to the film. Still, t's plausible barely just because of Swinton.

The problems still keep arising though, especially when we enter Mexico. I never really have a problem with the way Mexicans are portrayed, since I don't take offense easily, but this rubbed me the wrong way. Their manner of speaking, their actual language. I'm not saying it's completely off the mark, but something about that storyline upset me. Maybe it has to do with the thin characterization, or the execution, or the direction. All I know is that what only kept me watching was finding out all of Julia's story. I am also not one to dismiss endings because they aren't "complete", but here it didn't work well. I wanted it to finish, for it to reveal the fate of this character. This sort of abrupt ending only works specifically for certain powerful films, and since this isn't, it just left me unsatisfied.

Overall, worth a watch for Swinton's magnificent performance, and I was actually more entertained than my rating will suggest, but the film is full of flaws within its story. A Breaking Bad story not nearly as engaging or as complicated as it wishes, but still not bad at all and remains a solid film. This feels like the performance Swinton won the Oscar for, just because of how extreme it is.

Not only Tilda S. for taking on this role, but especially her. She goes all out for this role and I'd even go so far saying, that her performance is worthy a "Daniel Day Lewis" award (that's a joke, but I hope you get my point).

While I really loved her character at the beginning, it began to tumble and went kinda downwards from a certain point of the movie. Which all comes down to the really unlikeable "Julia" (main character). The problem is that not only couldn't I identify with her, from a certain point onwards I despise her. That also comes down to some of her choices, which I won't go into, because that would be spoiling the story.

Apart from Tilda, you have a few other great actors in this too. But as good as they are, they never overshadow the failings of the main character. Of course this was meant to be that way, but I couldn't like the movie as much as I'd love to, just for this simple fact.

I could not like this film more. Yes, it's messy. Yes, it's extreme... but it is precisely for these reasons that I adore it. In this age of one slick, bland, impeccably crafted and neutered blockbuster suppository after the other and at a time when so-called independent films are so often just show reels for wanna-be future suppository crafters, this is a breath of pure, animalistic, delightfully anarchic, fresh air. It is truly cinematic, ambitious, original and brilliant. The dialogue is a bit weak in places and it feels like it was edited in a rush, but those are my only complaints. Swintons performance is full of fantasy and compassion and anyone who has ever spent time around hard-core drinkers will know that it is 100% realistic. The entire experience of watching this film is like a binge weekend for the viewer: All threads unravel, reason becomes skewed and when sobriety finally kicks in, you are left with nothing. I was swept along in a complete state of reverie and found myself breathless and wishing it could go on longer when it ended. The colourful mix of characters and landscapes are beautifully framed and lit. The whole thing is like a bizarre European fairytale of what America is like. Oscars for best Actress and cinematography please!

Awkward kidnapping thriller/actress vehicle for Tilda Swinton. I love Swinton as much as the next movie lover, and for a while I was thinking that, yes, this was her shining moment. But after a while, it all seemed like a little too much. She's done a ton of subtle work over the past two decades, and she's so in your face here it just doesn't feel like the same actress. That could be a compliment, but I found her work here so overwrought. One of the problems is that a lot of the dialogue is improvised (I'm guessing), and I don't think she acquitted herself well. The plot involves a hopeless alcoholic who gets involved in a kidnapping plot. The woman who asks her to help (Kate del Castillo, just awful) is also an alcoholic. Her son was taken from her by her dead husband's father. She claims to have money to pay Swinton in Mexico. Swinton sees it as the perfect opportunity for a double cross. Later, there'll be more double crosses, probably a triple cross, and eventually the kid gets kidnapped FROM Swinton by some Mexican gangsters. It's all very meandering, and the film runs a whopping two and a half hours (at 90 minutes, it could have been very good). It's not that it's a boring film, really, it's just kind of annoying and unfocused.

JULIA is one of those films that goes beyond being a story and production worth the viewers' attention: this is one of those experiences in observing the art of acting at its peak. Tilda Swinton who continues to explore roles that challenge her and her audience, roles that few other actresses would considering making let alone making, and in JULIA she covers a range of emotions and mutations of a character that simply leave the audience in complete awe of her talent. She is extraordinary!

Julia is a bright but flawed person. She is an alcoholic who spends her nights drinking herself into oblivion only to wake up the next morning not recognizing her bed partner or the surroundings of her comatosed night of stupor. Swinton makes us understand this character's 'way with men' in her grossly revealing clothes and her flirtations backed by a mouth of filth. Julia loses her job over her drunken tardiness and has ruined a 'relationship' with ex-alcoholic Mitch (Saul Rubinek) and finally goes to an AA meeting where she meets Elena (Kate Del Castillo), a pathetic recovering alcoholic whose only goal in life is to retrieve her son Tom (Aidan Gould) from his wealthy disapproving grandfather. Julia is so desperate for money that she buys into a bizarre 'kidnapping' of Tom for Elena, a decision that triggers all of the rest of the film's journey through crime and sleaze as Julia fails at every effort to 'play the game' of criminal to make a fortune. Traveling from Los Angeles through the desert to Mexico, along the way Julia encounters 'co-facilitators' in her new life of crime - portrayed by such fine actors as Bruno Bichir (Demian Bichir's brother), a new and fine young actor Horacio Garcia Rojas, and Eugene Byrd to name only a few of the standout performances. Though a bit overlong at 2 1/2 hours, the script by Michael Collins and Camille Natta is spot on perfect and the direction by Erick Zonca makes the long film always richly colored and fascinating in attention to detail.

But the real reason to watch this film in the astonishing, multifaceted performance by Tilda Swinton, surely one of the finest actresses before us today. Her Julia creates a new level of acting standard- even for Swinton!

Grady Harp

I have been an admirer of Tilda Swinton,since I first saw her in some of Derek Jarman's films,and moving on to acting in some mighty toothsome film fare after Jarman's untimely death due to complications from AIDS. Not only can she take on some roles in what could be considered "difficult" films,but she can fake an American accent quite well. Erick Zonka ('The Dreamlife Of Angels',The Little Thief') directs & co writes the screenplay (with Aude Py)about a self destructive 40 something,full blown alcoholic party girl,named Julia who's party girl days should have been behind her years ago. When she is ordered to attend an AA meeting by one of her best friends (played by veteran Canadian actor,Saul Rubinek), she meets up with a psychologically disturbed woman named Elena (played to the max by Kate Del Castillo),who wants Julia to kidnap her eight year old son from her Grandfather. Julia,with nothing to lose (and equally nothing to gain)is at first reluctant to go along with this scheme,but eventually goes along for the ride. What transpires is a botched kidnapping that goes from bad to worse to truly unbearable. Toss in an unintended trip to Mexico,and watch the fire get turned up to full 10. Comparisons to John Cassavete's film, 'Gloria' will be noted. Rated 'R'by the MPAA,this film contains pervasive raunchy language (both in English & Spanish),adult content & nudity & graphic,bloody violence. Leave the kiddies home

Julia (Tilda Swinton) is a drunk...a falling down drunk in fact. She is a total mess. She's in such a mess that she loses her job, drinks constantly and wakes up with god knows who next to her. At an AA meeting, her very odd neighbor, Elena, meets up with her and offers her a proposition....kidnap her son from the grandfather and she'll pay Julia $50,000 for the child! Julia has her own plans but almost from the very beginning, Julia screws up....and this happens so often that it's shocking to see she's not caught immediately!

For Tilda Swinton, "Julia" was a great film. It allowed her a great chance to act, as she was THE center of attention the entire movie and it also gave her the opportunity to play a really unusual character. So, as far as she goes, she did a good job and should be proud of her achievement. Unfortunately, while it is an interesting portrait of a screwy character, the film is also overly long and could have used some editing. This is especially apparent after the kidnapping, where the film just seems to meander. I found myself just wanting it to end after a while...even in spite of Swinton's great job in the lead.

Julia (Tilda Swinton) is a hard partying angry drunk. She loses her real estate job despite the help of sponsor friend Mitch (Saul Rubinek). Mitch forces her to go to her A.A. meetings. Her fidgety neighbor Elena (Kate del Castillo) is also at the meeting. She tells her about a plan to kidnap her own son Tom from his grandfather. She begs Julia for help offering $50k. Julia decides to kidnap the boy on her own for a big payoff.

It's the first film I've seen from french writer/director Erick Zonca. He shows a lot of gritty realism. The most compelling aspect of this movie is Tilda Swinton. She's going all out as the half-dressed drunken mess. It starts off more of a character study. The characters are so hopeless that it seems more like keystone cops caper. After the kidnapping, the movie drags a little as clueless Julia tries to make the scheme work. The kid isn't compelling enough. The pace really needs to pick up. It does pick up later on but the 144 minutes running time is too long.

This film tells the story of a alcoholic prostitute who is in serious need of money. She comes up with a plan to double cross a kidnapping of a child with a wealthy grandfather, but the plan goes horribly wrong.

The beginning of the film did not prepare me for such a big adventure! I thought  I was just going to watch an unfortunate woman's life, but things get increasingly interesting and thrilling as the film progresses. Tilda Swinton is unrecognizable at first, then she loses the makeup and act normal and I can see it's really her. She's very good in this film, playing a drunk then a heroine. I enjoyed watching "Julia", as it is a big adventure that takes viewers to unexpected places.

JULIA is a crime drama directed by French writer/director Erick Zonca, his third feature where the story takes place in USA and Mexico, follows the downward spiral of a single middle-aged alcoholic Julia Harris (Swinton), who hatches a plan to double-cross Elena (de Castillo), a young mother whom she encounters in the AA meeting, to kidnap her son Tom (Gould), and blackmail his rich grandfather.

Without any accomplices, Julia impetuously implements her criminal activity with the help of a gun and a black mask. Initially, Julia is shown as a complete train wreck, drinking herself into oblivion and sleeping with random guys, utterly self-serving, antipathy is the only thing viewers can project to this character, it reaches the pinnacle when she roughhouses Tom during the kidnap action, as if he is merely a cargo than a human being. Slowly things start to head into the point of no return, the script frustratingly allows the incompetence of police force and a convenient border-crossing plot-device to unconvincingly keep Julia at large, and shifts the locale to Mexico, where the Stockholm syndrome swells up, a mother-son bond becomes apparent, nevertheless, being flirtatious and unsuspecting with a local guy Diego (Bichir), Julia's negligence puts Tom in the possession of a gang of Mexican kidnappers, this karmic double-cross will cost Julia everything she to keep herself and Tom alive.

Rambling in almost 2 and a half hours, JULIA is unequivocally too long for its own good, but owing to the fantastic Swinton, who is the error-free backbone of the picture and almost appears in every and each scene, it is gripping enough to keep us hooked to watch her fight her way against all the odds. Ms. Swinton is fearless as ever, creates a magnetic persona out of Julia's own flaws, maternal instinct is a woman's most puissant weapon, even for the childless Julia, she transcendently achieves this enthralling metamorphosis from a disheveled woman has nothing to cling to in life to a fleshed-out protector of an innocent life. Among her eclectic filmography, this is simply a high water mark acting-wise. In the supporting group, Aidan Gould, who is a shameless empathy provoker for being cute and adorable, while Kate de Castillo in her de-glamourized state, embodies excellently as the lunatic mother of Tom, which only makes her sudden disappearance from the movie feel more grating, is she dead or in hiding? A fairly unwise loose end from the screenwriter's slack job. Otherwise, the movie is worth your time.

Julia (2008)

A hard edged tale of a woman pushed by her own desperation into crimes over her head. Tilda Swinton lets it rip here, in a vivid, color, cinema-verite style that depends as much on making you uneasy as anything. The characters are so believable, and the sequence of events stumbles along with such perfect inelegance (to say the least), you hate to see it all because what happens is pretty awful.

The ground covered is a believable version of what an ordinary person with seemingly good moral structure is driven to by circumstance. In this case, it's about being pushed by her own sorry life to do something that breaks out of it. But it also begins as a curious compassion, a genuine skepticism overwhelmed by the possibilities. By thinking, why not? And of course, why not then becomes all too clear. It's this sense that it could by a stretch happen to you or me (hopefully not, but in theory) that gives the movie its chilling penetration.

And the ending, as sensational as it gets, is a logical outcome of where we began, and there is a kind of victory, but it's no Hollywood ending, and that's a huge relief. Rather, it's as if you went along with a woman for the adventure of her life and it's the real thing, nothing held back, including disbelief, fear, violence, and sometimes, thankfully, a glimmer of hope. Very very well made--acting, writing, filming--but not everyone's cup of tea because it is so unsettling.

Solid movie. First of all, excellent acting of the female lead. I was impressed when read that the actress has never drunk a glass of liquor and we got to say that she was so convincing as alcoholic. Then, the movie itself deserves attention, it has solid dynamic plot and good story. What I don't like about this movie is passive camera that is following the heroine behind every corner through long shots as well as limited interaction with other characters. Also, I believe that ending supposed to be a little bit more sophisticated, refined in a film way. However, I do not agree that is unclear since we know all the time what is Julia's reason for kidnapping: she has no Acapulco or Swiss Bank plans, she does that to change her life. When she figured out that the kidnapped boy have already changed her life pretty much, he becomes more valuable reward.

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.