Product: Julia (1971)
Rating: 3.0
fonda's portrayal makes this a disappointing film
what could have been a great film is spoiled by fonda's absent-minded performance.the subject matter is important but the film doesn't focus enough on it,instead it focuses so much on how much stronger julia(vanessa redgrave) is than lillian hellman(fonda).jason robards as dashiell hammett also puts in a performance but is unfortunately underused in the film but still they gave him an oscar,why he was even nominated i'll never know.nor do i understand why redgrave won.it's not that her performance wasn't good it's just that there wasn't much there,other than portraying a strong woman.now for fonda,who should have never been nominated.how could hellman have appreciated the fact that she portrayed her as a bumbling idiot? yes what hellman did in real life was extremely important but the film portrays her only doing what she did because she was infatuated with julia. maybe that is why she really did what she did. maybe it's the director who is to blame for fonda's performance.she directs her as a bumbling idiot,going so far as to show her tripping over her own feet and having to be reminded over and over again to do something.they show how she stuggles to write her "play" and finally gets it made and becomes rich and famous.you'd think that they would at least say what the name of the play was seeing as how the first half concentrates so much on how she struggles to write it,but of course they never do.also since they portray hellman as a bumbling idiot how are we supposed to believe that she could be an accomplished writer? despite my negative review though i will say that the film does have some redeemable value.the story is one that is important,well most of it anyway,and does have a great quote."don't let anyone try to change your anger."