Crimen repentino

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.

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!

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

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.

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!