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Being Julia
Better to keep your life a farce than descend into a tragedy
About halfway through "Being Julia" it becomes clear to you that famous but aging actress Julia Lambert (Annette Bening) is setting up something and you start wondering what it is going to be. How much you like this 2004 film from director István Szabó based on W. Somerset Maugham's minor novel "Theater," will depend on how much you like the payoff for the setup, and, of course, Bening's Oscar nominated performance. But it could also depend on whether you manage to make it through the first half, which spends too long setting the stage for the theatrical fireworks at the end.
Set in London before the Second World War, "Being Julia" focuses on the title character who is now playing a woman half her age in a success play. Her performances have become meaningless repetition and so has her marriage to director Michael Gaslin (Jeremy Irons). Now, even her lover, Lord Charles (Bruce Greenwood) has moved on. The only thing she has going for her is that she is haunted, so to speak, by her old drama teacher (Michael Gambon), who has the virtues of not taking her seriously and telling her the truth, usually phrased in lurid and colorful ways.
Julia's response to this ennui is to have an affair with a young American, Tom Fennell (Shaun Evans). Her husband is aware but says nothing, apparently hoping it will help her performances, which will in turn help his pocketbook. However, when Tom's girlfriend, the young actress Avie Crichton (Lucy Punch), becomes part of the picture Julia starts to lose it. Desperate to start a new play as a way of keeping her position in the world of theater, she finds out that Avie will be in it as well and has scene that will make her reputation, perhaps as the "next Julia." It is at this point that Julia starts making suggestions to build up Avie's performance. Avie is grateful, Michael is surprised, and we are wary. What is Julia up to?
The bad news is that we are roughly an hour into the film before we become interested in the actual story and not just in watching Bening's performance and listening to Gambon's creative insults. I am perfectly willing to grant that the ending is over the top, but then so is Bening's Julia, so it is hard to complain on that score. If "All About Eve" was a tragedy, then "Being Julia" is a farce. But the comparison between this movie and one of the classic Hollywood films about the acting profession only serves to confirm that "Being Julia" is a second rate drama, albeit, one with moments.
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