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19 reviews in total

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43 out of 49 people found the following review useful:
I adore this film, 19 August 2008

Author: weeelfie

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!

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48 out of 64 people found the following review useful:
If you missed this one at the cinemas, you'll be cursing yourself - much worse than Julia Harris, 16 March 2008

Author: Arun Pillai (thebathroomsinger) from France

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!

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11 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Drunk...You Didn't Say That To Me Two Hours Ago When I First Walked In Here!, 5 July 2009

Author: druid333-2 from United States

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

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9 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
A Blazing Tour de Force for Tilda Swinton, 26 August 2009

Author: gradyharp from United States

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

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9 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Bring my darling boy to me, 19 March 2008

Author: richard_sleboe from Germany

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Elena, an AA regular, devises a wild scheme to abduct her estranged son, Tom, from his legal guardian, the boy's wealthy grandfather. While the plan is in progress, Elena's friend and accomplice Julia kidnaps Tom from his bodyguard to extort some money. The boy escapes, but Julia miraculously retrieves him from the salt flats of Southern California (or Arizona?). Mistaking a routine border patrol sweep for an LAPD manhunt, they accidentally cross into Baja California where the kid is promptly snatched by the Mexican mob. Sounds ludicrous? Totally. "Julia" is not a movie you will like for the plausibility of its plot. Its sole appeal is Tilda Swinton's amazing portrayal of a drunk, rising above the phlegm of intoxication to meet the challenges brought about by a near-nonsensical script. Although I liked the film, I think it's about an hour too long. The Tijuana episode is simply beyond belief.

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
If you liked "Thelma and Louise," you'll like this movie, 18 October 2009

Author: kathyprice from New Orleans, LA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This movie is about an alcoholic woman's transformation during a wild road trip. While I found the first 20 minutes hard to get through, and almost stopped watching, I found the remainder of the movie mesmerizing. Tilda Swinton is beyond amazing. You can't take your eyes off her. And you can't wait to see what will happen next as she digs herself deeper and deeper into a mess.

Having said all that, there were major gaps in the story line. For instance, she was out of money, which is why she tried to pull off this stunt, so where did she get all the money she used on the trip? Did I miss something? With Thelma and Louise, they robbed the convenience store to get money. Julia needed to do something like that to explain her funds.

The beginning was especially awkward as a nutty woman from an AA meeting approached Julia with a scheme to kidnap the woman's son from a guardian and get ransom. That whole proposal happened too quickly and was jarring. Then, what happened to that woman during the story? We never found out.

I'm surprised to find so many things wrong with the story line and yet still give his movie a high rating. Swinton is that good. If you can get through the first bit, and suspend disbelief a little more than normal regarding plot, watching this woman's journey from a boozy barfly into a compassionate being is well worth the trip.

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Swinton triumphs over improbabilities in the script, 28 December 2009

Author: bandw from Boulder, CO

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Tilda Swinton has to be one of the most interesting actresses of her generation. When we first meet her here as Julia she is a cynical, down-and-out alcoholic whose life consists of getting drunk in a bar in the evenings and then sleeping with whomever she can attract for the night. But Julia realizes that her life is going nowhere and her desire for money leads her to misadventures, to understate the matter. We think that this is going to be a tale of redemption, and it does touch on how the relationship that develops between kidnapper and kidnapped changes Julia, but by the end, after murders, lies, kidnappings, double-crossings, and more drinking, it is hard to admire Julia too much when she displays a bit of compassion for the boy she in fact kidnapped.

Swinton did not mail this one in--she goes at the role giving 100%. I just wish she had chosen to apply her considerable talent to material with a stronger message than, "Oh! what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!" But, with such a blistering performance she creates a memorable character and I could only stand back in appreciation.

The supporting cast is good, including the child actor Aiden Gould. The pacing kept my interest to the point where I didn't think about the major plot holes until after the movie was over.

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
one of the most enjoyable films of 2009, 4 November 2009

Author: Tyy Tad from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

A character like Julia is a dream for any actress looking for credibility – if only because the character refuses to allocate herself: she's a lonely alcoholic that coerces her way to the back of a strange guy's backseat to prevent sleeping alone, and she chain-smokes her way through AA meetings after being fired from her job (it seems her wild nights have taken a toll on her quality of work) – all the while wearing uncomfortable heels and clingy outfits. Surprisingly, this isn't a character study of a woman getting her act together; rather, "Julia" takes a bizarre change of pace whenever the title character comes into hard times and agrees to kidnap a kid in order to give him to the mother, so the mother could take the son (who is under his abusive dad's custody) and flee to Mexico. Julia thinks of a better idea, though: she hears that the mother offering her the initial job is loaded, so she decides to kidnap the kid and not return him to the mother – thus holding out for a huge ransom from the highest bidder. It's genius … in a conniving, manipulating way. Oh, and when you think you know how that angle will play itself out, more surprises are in store. Plenty of them, actually.

To call "Julia" a movie that doesn't play by the rules of an ordinary Hollywood production is to say jock itch is only a slight discomfort: some will swear this to be true, but they likely haven't found themselves in their Sunday best during a sermon when the crotch gods build up something wicked.

If this is a role that would be perfect for a flavor of the month looking to receive an Oscar nomination – with the off the wall screaming and drunk mannerisms played excessively to makes sure the stingiest voting member will salivate – think about how well an established actress with no shame from film to film can handle the title character. This is the finished product, as actress Tilda Swinton, a respected performer known for playing forthright women with no desire to confirm to society, adds another achievement to her increasing filmography. I've seen her play an understanding mother of a gay son, a cheating, materialistic wife, an opportunistic corporate suit that would hire a hit man to ease her troubles, and now this. I've always been impressed with Tilda's movement from one role to the next, because her natural acting techniques work wonders in making any character brought forth from a screenwriter's imagination seem to be living people with real emotions and tempers. Here, she's got her work cut out for her: it's such an unfriendly part, and she's got to mix in dry humor – her line readings of single words are to die for; never before have I noticed so much could be made out of the word "one" – and a gambit of obvious emotions that you would need in this sort of environment. Fear is a big one.

Despite everything written already, "Julia" isn't a one woman show. Sure, the film would be a lot less interesting without a great leading performance, but the film would only be a slight disappointment whenever all the other parts are so competent. Director and co-writer Erick Zonca plugs the twists in the narrative very carefully, as if to make absolutely sure we won't find ourselves offended by material we aren't likely to find anywhere else. The acting of the supporting characters is too noteworthy, even if I suspect a driven actress like Swinton could have such amazing chemistry with Wilson the ball in "Cast Away" that the Academy would find themselves pressured to make a new category for the Oscars: Outstanding Achievement in a Performance by an Inanimate Object. I'm short selling here. The child actor playing the kid abducted by Julia, Aidan Gould, adds fear and dignity to the boy, and proves to be a great tool whenever the movie decides that the main character needs an attitude adjustment. The child's overly enthusiastic mother, played by Kate del Castillo in a rather small part, shows palpable compassion.

It's important with a movie with such volatile themes (that I'm treading over very cautiously, as to say that the many surprises need to be felt on your own) to not approve of the action of the aggressor and remain loyal to the victim. It's an obvious thing, but you'd be surprised how many action films blur the lines of what is morally acceptable to the point where you want to throw your hands up in the air and dismiss the product. Even though we have to wonder to what extent Julia is a bad person, the movie never attempts to make us pity her. Somehow the script pulls from certain defeat a winning, affecting drama. Every action has an appropriate reaction, and later a consequence. Anything else would be an insult. In one of the finest (and enjoyable) films of the year, the right notes are played so frequently that they cover up any shortcomings and make them non-issues.

Rating: **** out of ****

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
a contender for sleeper of the year, 14 October 2009

Author: MisterWhiplash from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Not everyone will want to see Julia. It's not a 'happy' picture, and its bleakness is compounded by an ending that is bittersweet only inasmuch that the main characters are (spoiler alert) still alive. And not too many people rush out to see a two hour and twenty minute movie with Tilda Swinton (albeit a recent well-deserved Oscar winner) playing an alcoholic floozy who takes a chance to make a lot of money by kidnapping a kid who at first she's getting done for the boy's mother, only to find herself in deeper trouble south of the border. But for those of us that would be interested in seeing another hard-hitting drama with Tilda Swinton in the lead (think back, for those who might remember, to the likes of The Deep End), it's a kind of intense bliss. It's also one of the more unusual kidnapper stories ever told, mayhap.

In the movie Tilda Swinton is Julia, who is so bad at her alcoholism she shows up to an AA meeting only to leave a minute into it and stand in the lobby smoking cigarettes. She's lost her job, she has a wax-on-wax-off relationship with a former drunk (Saul Rubinek), and is listening with half-ears-open to an unstable Mexican woman who wants to see her son again. She tells Julia she can get rich, very rich, since the kid's grandfather has a lot of money with his company. So Julia, in her desperation and debts mounting, goes for the task and kidnaps the kid while out playing in the woods. She wears a black mask in front of the kid (looking, the Mexican mother comments, "like a demon"), but soon takes it off when trust is reached between them. She also isn't sure what to do, and by a kind of crazy twist of fate (i.e. driving maniacally through the desert to lose a helicopter following a bunch of illegals crossing the border), she winds up in Tijuana.

This is already an hour and a half into the movie, and there's still plenty more to go here. I could spoil everything else that happens in the film, but it would spoil not so much the 'fun' but the harrowing irony that befalls Julia just on the tip of getting two million (suffice to say, think Man on Fire, only less Tony Scott and more... realistic). Yet Julia doesn't get bogged down in melodrama, and you don't even realize that much time has passed. It's a long movie, but you get wrapped up in Julia's struggle; she's an anti-hero in a definite term, and because she's played by Swinton as a strong and determined 'dame' with nothing to lose we stick with her wherever her story takes her.

And while I would hope to give Swinton as much praise as possible, since it is such a brave performance that calls up all of her skills as an actress, foregoing any BS Hollywood star ego for down-and-dirty scenes in Tijuana and up against non-professional players in the Mexico locations, it's also Erick Zonca's movie. One may recall his achievement with The Dreamlife of Angels, about two young French women living in an apartment with various dramas, but this time with Julia he takes things into a kind of dark, naturalistic fable. He gives some moments for us to breathe in-between those tense scenes between Swinton and the boy, or in those later Mexico scenes, to really take in landscapes and the scenery, that desert Julia takes Tom to hide in, or the rough beauty of the streets of Tijuana, or even in that opening scene at the bar that sets up Julia as this unlikely protagonist.

Zonca's made with Julia a morality play rich in thrills and poetic irony in the guise of a neo-noir, and cast it with an actress who won't make a character sympathetic for the sake of it but real enough for us to understand her every step of the way.

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17 out of 34 people found the following review useful:
Brave, 15 July 2008

Author: kosmasp

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.

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