Being Julia

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.