I had been hearing a lot about Tilda Swinton's performance in an independent film called Julia (2008). I even heard it compared to Daniel Day Lewis's performance in There Will Be Blood, so naturally with that type of hype I had to check it out. Swinton is good, the movie isn't horrible but the film falls short as a good thriller for a multitude of reasons.
The film surrounds Swintons Julia, an alcoholic, floozy who gets so drunk every night that she wakes up not knowing who she's with or where she is. She gets fired from her job, do to her indiscretions. So with no money and no job she is forced into an AA meeting where she meets a clearly crazy Elena who eventually tries to get Julia to kidnap her son back from her "evil' but rich grandfather.
Though the plot is intriguing, why it doesn't work is because you never buy into caring about Julia's character or the relationship she does or does not form with the kid she kidnaps. Great thrillers have the audience on the edge of their seats wondering what is going to happen next. Julia has none of the apprehension or sure handed direction needed to make it successful. I just wanted the poor kid to get back to his family, but he didn't even make that easy to do because of the lack of acting by Adian Gold as Tom.
Movies like Julia are not bad enough to excuse them, but not good enough to justify their existence. This film has no real unique characters (seems to me that people just bought into the talents of Swinton and didn't realize her character is not memorable), no nerve racking moments, and an ending that isn't really a pay off.
**
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