Tilda Swinton stars in director Erick Zonca's drama about a 40-year-old alcoholic who, in a rare moment of sobriety, sees where her life is headed and makes one last-ditch attempt to steer herself away from the disastrous path that she has been locked on for as far back as she can remember. Julia may be manipulative, notoriously untrustworthy, and completely incapable of uttering any word that isn't an outright lie, but somehow -- perhaps due to sheer charisma -- this statuesque deceiver has
always managed to get by. But Julia has been hardened by too many vodkas and too many one-night stands, and lately the lonely life of drifting from job to job in her 1979 Chrysler New Yorker has left her wanting something more. While her old boyfriend Mitch occasionally tries to break through Julia's haze, lately she has surrendered herself to the fact that she is simply one of life's losers. As her finances begin to run short and panic begins to set in, a desperate Julia turns to crime but is forced to go on the run with a young boy named Tom after her plan falls hopelessly apart. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Picture Fargo played with no sense of comedy, and you'll get some idea of the absurdity of this drunken floozy, clicking and wobbling on high heels, often with bits of her anatomy hanging out, trying to pull off the perfect crime.
Like any beautiful, heartbreaking wreck -- we can never take our eyes off Julia. Or the fierce and uncompromising actress bringing her to awful, astonishing life.
Swinton masterfully pours much more than her heart into her drunken damsel in distress role, in this gin drenched drama. But the audience is unfortunately left to languish without a clue, as to how she ended up that way and who she may be when sober.
It's simply impossible to imagine Eric Zonca's Julia, a noirish thriller and sharp character study inspired by Cassavetes' Gloria, without Tilda Swinton, who dominates the film from start to finish.
In Erick Zonca's tense and juicy noir, Tilda Swinton plays the title role with a crusty panache matched only by her matted, flaming-red thatch of hair (a character in its own right).
I salute the film's bravery for rushing off at full force on its own stream-of-consciousness logic, but for me, I found the final stages perhaps a tad too far-fetched.
This film is put out by Magnolia Home Ent. Julia is an alcoholic who meets a women who lives across from her that want's Julia to kidnap her son from his grandfather for $50,000 dollars. Julia does everything wrong. After winding up in Mexico, the child she kidnaps is kidnap by Mexicans mean while 2 million dollars is
on the way to the airport. In the end what does Julia end up with, if I tell you that it wouldn't be worth watching. A good one to see at home by yourself cause 7 out of 10 people would not enjoy it. 3 stars
January 17, 2011
Bruce Bruce
Super Reviewer
What a performance!
Tilda Swinton really "knocks it out of the park" here as the tragic Julia.
I wish I could say that alcoholism was her only problem, but by the end of this film I was convinced that her "issues" ran much deeper and that and that the booze was just her way of "self medicating".
In any case it is a
highly engaging look at what desperate people will do to avoid (the sometimes brutal reality of) life.
It does (at times) feel a bit over the top, but when you consider the fact that there are actually people out there living life in this manner...
I kept reminding myself that,what is "crazy" to us is simply someone elses reality.
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