Julia

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Julia

May 14th 2010 00:35

I plucked Julia (2008) off the shelves, the DVD cover intriguing (as covers often are), but not the title, then put it back since although I loved Tilda Swinton in Orlando and The War Zone (1999), I’m not the biggest fan, and the idea of watching her star in a two-and-a-half hour movie seemed like an ordeal. A couple of weeks later I saw the trailer and promptly hired the movie the next day. Julia is an uncompromising portrait of nightmarish desperation and self-destruction. It was an ordeal, but one I was quite prepared to endure. Tilda Swinton delivers a career performance that blows most of her contemporaries out of the water.

Tilda Swinton as Julia

From a screenplay originally by critically-acclaimed French director Erick Zonca (The Dreamlife of Angels) and Aude Py, but adapted by Roger Bohbot and Michael Collins (presumably into English, since the movie is set primarily in Los Angeles, California), Julia tells the tragic story of a raging 40-something alcoholic who can’t seem to do anything to help herself except drink herself into oblivion, only to wake sprawled on some man’s bed, or sofa, or car, half-naked, with the taste of her dignity ready to be spat in the toilet. But salvation, a baptism by fire, comes in the form of Elena (Kate del Castillo).

Aiden Gould as Tom

Saul Rubenek as Mitchell

Julia is a difficult pill to swallow, it’s a tour-de-force of direction and the central performance by Tilda Swinton, who captures the pathetic horror of being a drunk almost as well as Richard E. Grant did in Withnail and I (and curiously is essentially a teetotaler like Grant). The screenplay isn't perfect, mostly notably in the movie’s last quarter where tension is held taut, but the drama stumbles, and a couple of key factors are not illustrated well enough, serving only to confuse the audience. Not that I need everything explained, far from it, but it’s an abrupt and frayed ending that doesn’t satisfy as it should. The journey up to this point has been riveting, and the story demands more resolution, regardless of sorrow or joy.

Kate del Castillo as Elena

At story’s start Julia is fired from her job, her friend Mitchell (Saul Rubenek), a recovering alcoholic wants to help her, spouts a little tough love, and pushes her into an AA meeting where she is befriended by Elena, with a glint of madness in her eye that’s not the juice talking. Elena has lost her son to her wealthy grandfather, and the boy’s father is dead. Elena is beside herself, desperate for her son to understand where the other half of his heart lies. She’s concocted an abduction plan and for Julia there’s fifty grand in it. Julia takes the bait, hook, line and sinker.

A masked Julia with a drugged Tom

And so we embark on a crazy, darkened odyssey with Julia and young turk Tom (Aiden Gould) as they travel south across the border into Tijuana to rendezvous with Elena. But Julia successfully manages to screw everything up along the way. She’s become as desperate as Tom’s mother, and the Stockholm Syndrome begins to take hold of her, or maybe it’s the dwindling supply of booze and the desert heat slowly driving her insane. Either way, the situation is swelling, becoming more and more pear-shaped. Enter the Mexican bandits.

On a mission, no turning back

Stockholm Syndrome kicking in

Director Erick Zonca with cinematographer Yorick Le Saux has made a sumptuous-looking movie, with powerful imagery, dynamic use of editing and suspense, and a sucker-punch of shocking violence. The production values are top notch, the support cast are excellent, especially Horacio Garcia Rojas as bandit Santos, while Saul Rubenek is convincingly pained and nervous, and Kate del Castillo captures sociopathic tendencies to a tee. Initially I had trouble believing Aiden Gould, but I grew to appreciate his petulant, standoffish prepubescence. But Swinton is amazing. It’s such a brave role for her, totally unglamorous, yet mesmerizing, and she pretty much nails the American accent, with the rough-and-ready vernacular and mannerisms of a hardened self-sufficient drinker. Her unruly red hair was almost a performance in itself!

Julia Tilda Swinton and Horacio Garcia Rojas

Santos (Horacio Garcia Rojas) doesn't suffer gringos lightly

It’s a minor gripe that the movie wasn’t called something with a little more pizazz. Understandably the movie, a French/American/Mexican/Belgi an co-production, focuses on the emotional machinations of one character, but Julia is a well-worn name amongst movie titles, surely the screenwriters could have come up with a titular character that demands your attention more than just Julia. But hey, it’s a relatively small qualm.

Julia demands to be seen. Where was her Oscar nomination?! Why didn’t this movie receive a theatrical release down under? Perhaps it came and went without making the slightest impression, and if so, I’m disappointed I missed it on the big screen, but very glad I finally found it all the same.

Here's the trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

5 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by JohnDoe

May 14th 2010 00:43

Film & TV on DVD

Great review of a film that got me excited the second I saw the trailer a few months ago.

I'm a big Tilda fan, pretty much find her fascinating in most roles. Agreed Orlando is still her most satisfying role and film.

Julia was already in the Netflix queue now it moves up in the list.

Comment by Matt Shea

May 14th 2010 00:52

Nice one Bryn - great review. I too tend to enjoy Swinton's work - she's got a great range as a performer. Like you, I've been passing this on the shelf, but will correct that sharpish.

Comment by Mr Nice Guy

May 14th 2010 03:46

Pop Culturist
Pop Rock Factory

Bryn

I confess - I've never seen it. But given the review and a few hours I've got to kill tonight - I'm off to (insert here) video to pick up a copy.

Nice!

Comment by David O'Connell

May 14th 2010 05:33

20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic

Thanks for the reminder about this one Bryn, it only screened down here at our ACMI cinema for a couple of weeks towards the end of last year. I missed it at the time and have been meaning to get hold of the DVD. The only reason I took note of this in the first place actually was because of Zonca's involvement. The Dreamlife of Angels is one of my favourite French films of all time, without doubt.