If you’re going to make a movie about a grande dame of the theater, you’d better cast the film with a dame who’s pretty gosh-darned grande.
“Being Julia” has Annette Bening, and that’s half the fight right there. Bening doesn’t make many movies, but her recent turns in “American Beauty” and “Open Range” have reminded us of her ability to take charge of the screen. She’s every inch the prima donna here.
The setting is London, 1938. Bening plays Julia Lambert, the acknowledged diva of the West End; she can bring audiences into the theater even for bad plays, like the one she’s in now.
Julia is bored. She demands that her husband, Michael (Jeremy Irons), the theater owner, give her a new property. Instead, he introduces her to a young American fan, Tom (Shaun Evans).
The marriage of Julia and Michael is very flexible. And soon Julia and Tom – who’s 20 years her junior – are conducting a happy little affair.
This has Julia confronting a basic dilemma in her acting. Suddenly her melodramatic pauses and poses don’t seem real. She’s always had the ability to cry on cue, but now she’s feeling authentic emotions.
This issue – getting at the real self behind the mask – is a common one in the films of Hungarian director Istvan Szabo. It’s the basis for his World War II classics “Mephisto” and “Colonel Redl,” and also for another movie he made about a stage diva, “Meeting Venus,” with Glenn Close.
The story is adapted from a novella by W. Somerset Maugham. Ronald Harwood, the Oscar winner for “The Piano,” did the screenplay. He, too, is working in familiar territory, having previously written “The Dresser,” a tale of a larger-than-life stage legend.
“Being Julia” is witty enough, but its various parts don’t always hold together. The entire third act is built around Julia’s onstage plan to humiliate a younger rival, a cruel and funny sequence.
Irons does discreet supporting work, as do Bruce Greenwood, as Julia’s older suitor, and Lucy Punch (a perfectly named actress), as the young, mostly untalented rival who must be put in her place. Michael Gambon waltzes through as a dead acting teacher who nevertheless continues to give Julia acting advice.
It’s odd that this film is being released on exactly the same day “Stage Beauty” opens. Both movies are in love with the stage, and with ideas of acting. This is a civilized look at the subject, but somehow it doesn’t seem very urgent.
“Being Julia” HH
Lacks urgency: In London in 1938, a great stage diva (Annette Bening) indulges in an affair with a younger man, thus revitalizing her acting.
Rated: R for language, subject matter.
Now showing: Seven Gables and Uptown, Seattle.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
