Being Julia

Being Julia (Director: Istvan Szabo)

Hungarian director Szabo is a veteran of film, but he's not directed anything most people have heard of, even me.

Following the character-within-a-title rule, Being Julia is a character study of an acclaimed actress, Julia Lambert (Bening), and her life outside the stage, which we find out isn't exactly separate. The fun you may have with Being Julia may entirely hinge on whether you think that her antics on and off the stage are worthy story material.

Count me as one who's not entirely sold on this. While Bening is fabulous, the story itself is not one that I find myself relishing. We have Julia, a bored actress, and her husband/manager/theatre owner Michael Gosselyn (Jeremy Irons), who love each other "in their own way," which means a prime excuse for adultery. Unable to get friend Lord Charles (Bruce Greenwood) in the sack, Julia takes up with super-fan Tom Fennel (Shaun Evans), who seems like an aw-shucks type of young man but at heart is a ladykiller, and after some delightful rogering, Julia finds her performances getting better, and her interest in acting more enthusiastic.

All the while, Julia keeps seeing her dead acting coach Jimmy Langton (Michael Gambon, who possibly in another year might have been nominated), still telling her what she's doing wrong, still coaching her, from the grave--and this goes for personal life as well as the stage. When Tom starts shagging wannabe actress Avice Crichton (Lucy Punch), and Julia finds out about it, the performance of her career begins off the stage, and ends on the stage.

Bening's performance is very showy, and works for the material, which I found a little lacking overall. Even though we are supposed to be glad Julia gets her revenge in the end, I found the way she went about it unsatisfying. I'm not opposed to the idea, a Hamlet-esque "the play's the thing wherin I'll catch the conscience of the king" kind of revenge, but how it goes down is too much, and not very subtle. Also, we have this problem with film when we follow a character like Julia and sort of forgive her for her philandering, to somehow get mad at other characters who do the same thing, like their sin is worse, which isn't true. If you believe Julia is the only person who deserves to get some sort of hilarious revenge in the end, then the movie has sold you on its concept. For me, I find it hard to distinguish between Julia's sins and any other characters, and thus the big feel-good moment rings entirely false.

Another mention, Tom Sturridge as Julia's son Roger is very good. It's an actor's movie, that's for sure, and what a surprise from the year of 2004.