Being Julia (2004)

Load of rubbish!!

Fantastic!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

a film who must see. for cast, off course, but, in same measure, for the story. for Annette Bening giving an extraordinary role. and, sure, for Shaun Evans who represents a revelation. a film about marriage, theater, love, compromises, need to escape from ordinary life circles and the revenge. a film who, at the first sigh, gives nothing new. but who impress. for an inspired way to build, step by step, in each detail, a shining world. the humor and the science of Annette Bening to do a gorgeous role. two motifs to enjoy "Being Julia".

I am not a person to watch movie a lot, and you don't have to be a fan of this movie. i just picked this movie from library to do my presentation in class.This a really romantic, comedy and exciting movie that made me to watch it five times. Julia was a real famous, pretty actress woman that showed to her audience who really getting old that age is not a reason to give up. The point of the movie was save your confidence in any age because after she found out "Avice" who took her two love men she started to make herself strong to show her she is not a person to put her down in her life."Being Julia" is a delightful tale about theatrical life, manipulation, love and revenge.

I haven't read Somerset Maugham's novel entitled Theatre which the film was adapted into this film. While the film has a first rate cast, I kept thinking that the role of Julia Lambert could have been equally brilliantly played by Juliet Stevenson CBE who was playing Edie, Julia's long-time personal assistant. Miriam Margolyes OBE again plays a lesbian producer in this film who loves Julia almost as much as Julia loves herself. She is constantly followed by her old acting teacher played by Sir Michael Gambon. The film is about Julia who needs to find herself again. She finds love in a younger lover and wanted to consummate with an old friend who kindly tells her that he's playing for the other side. Jeremy Irons plays her husband and producer. The couple are quite a complement to each other. Julia retreats to visit her mother played by the divine Rosemary Harris and her Aunt Carrie played by Rita Tushingham. But still, Annette Bening does a superb job in making you feel for Julia Lambert.

Annette Bening has title role in "Being Julia," a story about an actress who oftentimes doesn't know where she leaves off and her stage character begins.Though this is really a one-woman show, Bening is surrounded by a marvelous cast including Jeremy Irons as her impresario husband, Michael Gambon as her acting coach, who, though dead for 15 years, is coaching her through life, Shaun Evans as her young, ambitious beau, and Lucy Punch as her rival. Kudos to Bruce Greenwood, who plays a suitor of Julia's - it looked like Bruce Greenwood but didn't sound like Bruce Greenwood, so I had to look at the cast list.Julia Lambert is a 1930s stage star who, as far as she's concerned, will be playing women in her thirties for a long time. Though she depends on her husband, who owns a theater and guides her career, they lead separate lives (he's under the impression that she hasn't been interested in sex since she gave birth to their son). She takes a young lover (Evans) who soon falls in love with blonde Avice (Punch) and asks Julia to let her audition for a role in her new play. Julia is most generous to her rival, encouraging her husband to cast her as the ingénue in the new play, giving Avice the stage in her key scene, and even wearing a colorless costume so as not to distract from Avice's moment. The viewer isn't fooled; we sit there waiting for Julia's next move.Julia's own son Roger is never sure when she's acting or being real, especially since she once told him something and that night, repeated the identical thing on stage. Let's just say when something works, she keeps it. When she begs her young lover not to leave her, she says the same speech, word for word, she gave to another boyfriend.Bening is fabulous in this tour de force, and she looks beautiful and elegant in the gorgeous costumes. Someone commented that she bravely let Szabo photograph her in "unforgiving closeup," but I'm sure there are plenty of 46 year-olds who wouldn't mind looking like Bening.This is a slight story but a highly entertaining one. My only complaint is the casting of Evans, and I do not understand how it is that casting people always, always get this wrong. When Linda Grey had a young boyfriend on "Dallas," it was Christopher Atkins, which ruined the plot. I could go on, but these roles are often given to men who, first of all, are too young and look it, and secondly are too vapid. Someone on this site suggested Heath Ledger or Billy Crudup - uh, now you're talking. This kind of a role demands someone hot and of the type we older women would appreciate, not someone we want to pat on the head.Definitely worth seeing for Bening's performance and the great period atmosphere evoked in the film. Also, it's a film targeted to the over 40 demographic for a change.