CINEMA: Julia

Although there’s a barnstorming performance from Tilda Swinton in the title role, this movie is disappointing – promising much but failing to deliver.

Julia (Swinton) is, in the words of her AA sponsor (Saul Rubinek) an “out of control, suicidal, blind alcoholic”. With her life a car crash of broken promises and empty bottles Julia has no idea where she is going or how to get herself back on track. But a chance conversation with her neighbour Elena (Kate Del Castillo) seems to give her a get out opportunity – if she can kidnap Elena’s estranged son from his wealthy grandfather she could collect a handsome ransom for him – enough to start afresh somewhere new.

Swinton’s Julia is self-deluded and weak, a compulsive liar and rotten drunk whose me, me, me agenda means she can’t see anything beyond her own needs. It is a fascinating performance, pitch perfect, but it is let down by the film itself. The atmosphere is tense and intriguing up to and during the kidnap, but then director Erick Zonca takes his eye off the ball and the film goes off the boil, petering out rather than having a proper ending.

With stronger material this would have been a powerful portrayal of a life in ruins and a woman running on empty, instead it is basically one brilliant performance in an otherwise mediocre movie.      Dee Pilgrim