Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Being Julia (2004)
Director: István Szabó
Movie review
From Time Out London
As her stage diva character Julia would have it, this comedy drama revolves around Annette Bening’s stunning performance. The creation of novelist W Somerset Maugham, Julia Lambert is an ageing stage actress in the 1930s, accustomed to the world and her husband (Jeremy Irons) bowing to her every whim. She finds comfort in the arms of a young American fan, Tom (Shaun Evans), but plots revenge when she discovers she may lose him to a younger actress (the amusing Lucy Punch). While this pièce de résistance is wickedly funny, its message about empowerment and identity is undermined by a prevalence of superficial characters (but you’ve got to love serial housekeeper/nanny Miriam Margolyes as a rich, lecherous lesbian). Light, but likeable in the main.Author: AS
Time Out London Issue 1787: November 17-24, 2004
Cast & crew
Director: István Szabó
Producer: Robert Lantos
Cast: Annette Bening, Jeremy Irons, Shaun Evans, Rosemary Harris, Tom Sturridge, Bruce Greenwood, Miriam Margoyles, Sheila McCarthy, Rita Tushingham, Michael Gambon, Juliet Stevenson, Lucy Punch, Maury Chaykin, Leigh Lawson full cast
Duration: 104 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now