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Yes, the film is rather shallow and lightweight, and in retrospect, should have been much better, but as you watch Being Julia, and once all that pedestrian matter falls away, and it will, you are left with the performance of Annette Bening. A performance that, even though I was an English Major in college, the only word that pops to mind to describe it is - WOW!!!
Bening, who has always been a great Actress, often much greater than the films she stars in, from The Grifters to to Bugsy to The American President to Mars Attacks to American Beauty, outshines even herself here, as Julia Lambert, radiant diva of the London Theatre world in pre-WWII England. Julia, an aging prima donna, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, is suddenly awakened by the amorous dalliances of a young American fan, Tom (T-O-M, as Julia likes to spell out). Their affair, hidden not so subtly behind the back of Julia's very open-minded husband (Jeromy Irons), is, of course, doomed from the very start - but the moment of revenge that comes at the end, is a pure tour-de-force for the brilliantly wicked Queen bee, played with a stunning rapture by Ms. Bening.
Although tepid for the most part, Szabó's new film manages to climb above its own tediousness - and that is thanks to Bening, supposedly playing a character on the verge of being past her prime, but never looking sexier or more beautiful. Simply put - this is Bening's film, from beginning to end - even a talent like Irons is no match for this diva, upon this stage, at this hour. And, though the film as a whole may walk a tired, obvious straight line from point A to point B, and some of the players, especially the incredibly dull Shaun Evens as Julia's young lover, are less than stellar - Annette Bening is more than worth watching this film for. Just go to your thesaurus and look up all the words you can find for fabulous, and insert them anywhere you like when describing Bening's performance - astonishing, unbelievable, incredible - WOW!!!
-November 20, 2004
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