January 25, 2010

Julia (2008)

I could mention that Tilda Swinton deserves an Oscar for this, but the acting is besides the point. What we have here is one of those rare films that are at once art and compelling to watch as an 'edge of your seat thriller', which, even when that seat is a comfortable sofa, manages to pull you in to a story that, about the middle of the movie, takes a crazy unexpected twist, which REALLY pulls you to the edge of your seat. Everything is so unbelievable that only Swinton's extraordinary performance and the fact that all the events flow as the inevitable outcomes of the ones that precede them, and as extraordinary as they may be, we are never left with the idea that this plot is 'forced' or 'unrealistic' (despite very much being so) because of the inescapability of it all. The sheer necessity to deal with the path that she made and is making for herself, by itself leads the plot to an all-too-real unreality. Exceptional.