Being Julia Details

You won't get bored

You don't have to be a fan of Annette Bening (or Jeremy Irons) to enjoy this high-spirited tale of theatrical life - or rather, Julia Lambert's life, to be specific.

Based on a novella by my one of my all-time favorite authors, W. Somerset Maugham, Being Julia is sort of like All About Eve, except not as stage-y. It's a period piece, taking place in England in the '30s, where burnt-out Diva Extraordinaire Julia Lambert is moaning and groaning about her tedious, boring life to anyone who will listen, including her weathered and weary husband (Irons, drolly pipe-puffing his way through the film as only he could). She meets a young, handsome, American fan/opportunist (Shaun Evans, highly effective) and together they rekindle Julia's lust for life.

This is just the first half hour - it gets better and more and more outrageous (and of course more FUN) as it goes on. Needless to say, you won't be bored; in fact, I left the theater smiling and shaking my head.

[Highly rated reviewer]

OK, but the book's better

Sometimes when a book is good (as Somerset Maugham?s Theatre is) it?s as well to wonder why a narrative that depends on a great deal of internalised feeling could be expected to make a good film: so much subtlety is lost in broadening the characterisations (like changing the character of Tom from an aspirational suburban Londoner into an American) and motivations that it scarcely seems worthwhile. Read the book.

That said, this isn?t a hopeless effort, in fact it?s a moderately enjoyable film. Annette Bening is surprisingly good at the arch stageyness of her character, and Jeremy Irons (a predictable and unappealing actor) is well-cast. The standard of production values is high, and the simplified if vulgarised story is clear enough.

But it?s also a bit fluffy, and the direction is unexpectedly pedestrian: there are, for example, far too many ?reaction? shots, and a good deal too much unmotivated laughter to clumsily show how much people are supposed to be enjoying themselves. The climactic scene where Julia upstages her rival is hopeless anachronistic and unconvincing, and elsewhere too the period detail is inaccurate, for example in the grooming and teeth of Juliet Stevenson?s character.

There are worse ways to spend an hour and a half, but a lot of better ones too.