Julie Walking Home

Julie, the main character, is living in a failed relationship with a Biologist dad in an apartment in America.

When her son Nicholas has terminal cancer. She finds herself going to the other extreme, which is contrary to her beliefs and her enlightened worldview, in search of hope for him, when she meets a Polish therapist with special powers.

The story is quite consistent, and believable in a certain way. The characters' acting is great. The music is the Achilles' heel of the film. It is oppressive, and takes over the entire film.

It could say that the film is about a family that undergoes a change in the dynamics surrounding Nicholas' illness, and that the illness is the cause of the healing that the family needed.

The film also made me think about the role of faith - what is faith? Is it prejudice? Is it a person's helplessness in the face of their ability to control their destiny and the need for a certain attachment? Or is it actually the agreement to surrender and let go? Is faith the complete opposite of science, or are they simply two different ways of organizing reality, and does science merely prove faith?

In conclusion: Worth watching but long and tedious.

The stuff matinees are made of. It's not the artsy fartsy stuff it seems to sound like. Luckily, I saw it in the afternoon.

There may be something to say for faith healing, but this doesn't say it.

'Julia Walking Home' is a movie in which too many sensible themes as faith, marriage troubles, religiosity, supernatural events and the fear of death are put together in a bundle by director Agnieska Holland. Maybe the great circle of matters is a problem to the final outcome but, in fact, the movie and its narrative are not conducted with sufficient strenght to make the viewer really involved with the drama. All the time the movie goes on and on and the story seems to be restrained and underdeveloped. There's too much artificialism in some points, like the relationship between Julie (Miranda Otto) and the miracle guy (Lothaire Bluteau, in a strange performance) who performs supernatural cures for all kind of diseases. The most strong impression, after all, is that life must be linked with strong morality and family values. In this point, I think Mr. Frank Capra could have been the director of this peasant, conventional and thoughtless little drama. The outocome - maybe - would be much better. I give this a 5 (five).

This is a drama about beliefs and how these can change based on necessity and fear.

At the beginning of the movie the Jew husband (the always excellent William Fichtner) doesn't believe in miracles, but after his son gets better from a "miracle man", he changes his mind and begs that same miracle man --who has also slept with his wife in the meantime-- to come and help his son. The necessity of his son win the battle with cancer is more important than his own prejudices and fears.

The movie starts a bit slowly, then it gets a bit of a more interesting pace, but overall it's not a movie that will have you see it again any time soon. Performances are good, photography is not too bad, but the pace is slow.

Unfortunately as soon as I saw that this was a partly Canadian production from the opening credits I very nearly turned it off; as most things than come out of there are either boring or pale and poor imitations of the USA. I should have switched off. This movie rambles along in all sorts of directions with no apparent reference to anything. Is it a film about a broken marriage, a love affair, a faith healer, a child terminally ill or what? Seems that even those making it...ain't got a clue and it gives the distinct impression of being made-up as it goes along. No one wants to be a critic...there are a few good scenes and good acting.....but I found the whole picture disorganized and dis-orientated with neither meaning or message.Even the title is daft. A generous 3 out of 10.