REVIEW: Julia

Plot summary for Julia from fandango.com:

Tilda Swinton gives the performance of a lifetime as Julia, a middle-aged alcoholic who totters around nightclubs on six-inch heels, and gets by on nickel-and-dime jobs sandwiched between shots of vodka and one-night stands. Julia is manipulative , unreliable and a compulsive liar, and when an opportunity presents itself to make a substantial amount of money, she jumps at the chance and commits a desperate act. As the repercussions spiral beyond her control, she is forced to make a choice between sacrifice and redemption.

The bad thing about movies in January or February is that there isn't much interesting new films hitting theatres. The good thing is that all the interesting films you missed in the fall are coming out on DVD. By way of recommendation from the great podcast Filmspotting, we were able to catch one of those under-the-wire fall releases the other day, Julia starring Tilda Swinton.

It's amazing how many different faces Tilda Swinton has; we've seen her in a few films now, and she's always playing a completely different character. As the title character, Julia, Tilda Swinton is a very difficult character to engage. An alcoholic, a floozy, and a liar, she seems to have no sense of human decency. Its an interesting arc of character development; while Julia has no degree of respectability, she slowly and in certain ways starts to develop maternal compassion and loses some of the self-centeredness and false victimizing evident in the beginning. Yet the character and story is definitely a step away from the standard story, as Julia never "gets sober" or starts making intelligent decisions. Many compliments to Tilda Swinton for the performance; ugly, unflattering, and intense.

The movie is very suspenseful, one of those films you hold your breath throughout with no idea on how each scene is going to play out. Its also one where you don't even know what you want to happen. Julia is such a despicable mess, but with no other protagonist, you feel torn between her getting what she deserves and hoping that somehow things will workout for her. The plot takes turn after turn, often with no set-up, and constantly had me trying to keep up.

This film wasn't nominated for an Oscar although you could easily argue for a best actress nod. We're seeing The Blind Side this weekend, actually, and if Sandra Bullock does a better job than Swinton, I'll eat my hat. In the end, definitely worth checking out and we'd recommend you add it to your queue.

Kinsey: 3.5/5 stars
Wade: 4/5 stars