Julie Walking Home

The Polish director Agnieszka Holland offers a view about a family in turmoil caused by the illness of a young boy. This film was shown on the Sundance channel recently. Most of the comments submitted about this movie in this forum fail to give credit to Ms. Holland for this tale that blends mysticism, faith, science and betrayal that works well. Stop reading if you haven't seen the picture.

Ms. Holland's film is complicated, in that it asks the viewer to think about how Julie's actions to save Nick, her young son, stricken with a rare cancer, clash with the medical science because she goes with her instincts instead, when she takes the boy to be seen by a folk "healer" in Poland. At the same time her marriage has come to an abrupt end when she learns her husband has betrayed her with another woman, in her own home.

Julie sees an improvement when "the healer" selects Nick as his next project to help and asks her to follow him as he goes through the countryside seeing people. When Nicks starts showing signs of recovery, a mutual attraction develops between Julie and Alexei, the holy man. Julie goes home and Alexei follows her. Something is not quite right with Nick and when he has a relapse, Julie's faith in Alexei's ability to cure her son evaporates, thus ending their relationship, as Alexei abandons Julie.

The film is well done and paced. It engrosses the viewer because Ms. Holland knows where she is taking us. At the end, when Alexei has left, we finally see some sense of harmony in Julie's life, depicted lovingly in the last sequence of the film. Nick, is still not well, but the family has come together by the experience they have been through and we see that Julie is expecting a child. It almost appears as though Nick will die, but there will be a new life in the family. In other words, the sacrifice of Nick's life for the miracle that is growing in Julie's womb.

The movie owes a tremendous deal to the luminous presence of Miranda Otto, who does wonders with her depiction of Julie. Ms. Otto's face projects an intelligence that is uncanny. She makes us believe that she is this woman torn between the medicine that might help her young son, but does nothing, and to what extreme, as a mother, she will go to have Nick cured of the cancer that is killing him slowly.

Lothaire Bluteau is the healer, Alexei. He gives an enigmatic performance that adds another layer to the film. In their scenes together, Mr. Bluteau and Ms. Otto do amazing acting. This Canadian actor's work is never dull; he projects a rare knack to make his characters believable and likable.

Finally, William Fichtner, as Henry, is also excellent. He responds well to Ms. Holland's direction. The twins, played by Ryan Smith and Bianca Crudo are excellent without being bratty, or obnoxious.

Ms. Holland's film will reward those who watch it with an open mind as she never passes judgment on what we are seeing on the screen.

Director Agnieszka Holland is an intelligent art house filmmaker who makes interesting, layered movies like Europa, Europa, for people who like to exercise their minds at the cinema. With her newest film, the Canadian / German / Polish co-production Julie Walking Home, she may have outsmarted herself. There are simply too many ideas and dangling story lines thrown into the mix. Julie, nicely played by Miranda Otto, comes to a cross roads in her life when she discovers her husband with another woman. Then her cute son is diagnosed with cancer which can't be treated because he is allergic to the chemotherapy drugs. Pretty depressing stuff, but it gets worse. As her personal troubles mount she does what any caring mother would do to save her child - she runs to Poland and finds a faith healer. The charismatic Alexei (played by Canadian Lothaire Bluteau in a riff on his Jesus of Montreal role) lays his hands on the boy and in the process also wins Julie's heart and follows her back to Canada. IN the third act story threads are left to sway aimlessly in the wind, while the tone of the film grows bleaker and bleaker. Holland frequently examines issues of faith in her work, and had she stuck to just the faith healer's plot line this could have been a great film. Bluteau is terrific and could have easily carried the emotional weight of the story. As it is we are left with unanswered questions about where this film stands on almost every topic it tackles from faith to medicine to ethics.

'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).

• Life is complicated.

• There is no clear right or wrong.

• The deeds we hate on other people, may be done by us, when time comes. Humans don't always react in the most obvious ways.

• At many points in life, we have to make choices, where we gain something and we lose something. It is not usually obvious what choice is the best one.

• There is an ongoing tussle between heart and brain, the intellectual self and the emotional self, the worldly desire and larger than life desires...

These are some of things I recall from my experience with the movie. It was indeed an experience. It was a very sensitive movie having complicated characters and their psychologies. It was one of those movies wherefrom anybody could take back anything that he/she relates to, more strongly. For example, one may think it was a movie about a woman's hypocrisies whereas others might that it was a movie on fighting till the last moment. Some might view it as justifying the supernatural. Its just how you view it.

Although BASED ON A REAL LIFE STORY, and I never thought real life stories could be that surprising, its not the story that matters. Don't try to view the film based on the short story description. If you are into meaningful cinema which involves reflections from real life, a thought behind the movie, something that lets you ponder for quite sometime, this is the movie for you. And don't worry it will not be hard on you. Its softly told movie that will surely have an impact on you, positive or negative, who knows!

"The Healer" is not an easy film, not by any stretch. It is the only drama which I've seen that keeps the same manic pace as a modern thriller. This energy brings a strange sensation to the film, a feeling of more and more happening in less and less time. For a running time of less than two hours, it's a incredibly draining story to absorb. The beginning does not give any hint to the end. What happens between is unexpected and effectively realized.

I grew up watching Agnieszka Holland's film of "The Secret Garden". Since then, I've seen two others by her ("Europa Europa" and "Olivier, Olivier"), both of which I thought were largely inept and unimpressive efforts. But there's a quality of pace and human understanding on display here that very few directors could have achieved. From the magical imagination of children to the angst and alienation of the adults, she brings together characters and performances with a uniform brilliance.

Miranda Otto has a voice of musical purity. Her personality carries the film, and could have done so alone, even if not supported so well by the other cast members. William Fichtner, Lothaire Bluteau, and Jerzy Nowak are each deeply convincing. The twins - played by Ryan Smith and Bianca Crudo, who've acted little or not at all since - are two of the most convincing depictions of children I've ever seen.

The pace is what keeps "The Healer" together. It is somewhat high-spirited, and helped along by some beautiful music by Antoni Lazarkiewicz and Jacek Petrycki's energetic photography. I was fascinated with how he captured Halifax - a city I'm quite familiar with, but did not recognize until late. This is a film that can frustrating, engaging, and fascinating often at once. You're going to be left with questions, no doubts there. But if you can accept that, you should gain from the experience.