Bob An I had a smile on my face after the film! What a twist at the end - thought it was obvious that Julia was up to something!I liked the feel of the 20's or 30's in the movie. The language of Julia and people around her was very 'scenic' and I liked that! I think that the cast for all roles is really good. My only complaint would be 'her conscious' or 'her mentor' whom she imagines or she talks to him in her head... He was kinda out of place - I mean, that kind of 'angel' is OK for fairy tales, not musical dramas or whatever this film is.Anyway, it is entertaining all the way. I though I would give it a seven, but, in the end, just because I smiled most of the film - eight from me

jahan-bahareh I am not a person to watch movie a lot, and you don't have to be a fan of this movie. i just picked this movie from library to do my presentation in class.This a really romantic, comedy and exciting movie that made me to watch it five times. Julia was a real famous, pretty actress woman that showed to her audience who really getting old that age is not a reason to give up. The point of the movie was save your confidence in any age because after she found out "Avice" who took her two love men she started to make herself strong to show her she is not a person to put her down in her life."Being Julia" is a delightful tale about theatrical life, manipulation, love and revenge.

John Holden I didn't think it possible that Jeremy Irons could be in a bad movie; or, perhaps more important, that a movie with the combined talents of Irons, Bening, Gambon, Juliet Stevenson - with strong support by Rita Tushingham, Bruce Greenwood, Sheila McCarthy among others - wouldn't work. And it's based on a work by W. Somerset Maugham. And Ronald Harwood did the script.I would have bet it could not be anything but a great movie. But it is not great. It's barely good.To be sure there are great performances. Irons is the perfect aloof wealthy & stiff Brit - not much effort for him but still a smooth job. Bening is incredible really - some scenes are nonpareil. Gambon is strong, despite being reduced to a conscience/ ghost. And the and the always incomparable Juliet Stevenson is perfect.So, K? It's István Szabó's strength and weakness: he knows how to get great performances. He just can't pull it all together and tell a complete story. You end up with a play: the various characters chew up the scenery but never flow together. Mephisto is this all over.There are some unrealistic bits done to make a point: a son goes into his mom's room while she's in bed to tell how he picked a woman and got laid. He's with his mom's young lover so of course it's terribly contrived. A subtler story might have let her find out in myriad other ways. But the young man, flushed from his recent sexual activity talks to his mom, who is in a nightgown and flushed from an argument with her lover. There's just that hint of nasty sexuality that Maugham and Szabo like to wallow around in.

Syl I haven't read Somerset Maugham's novel entitled Theatre which the film was adapted into this film. While the film has a first rate cast, I kept thinking that the role of Julia Lambert could have been equally brilliantly played by Juliet Stevenson CBE who was playing Edie, Julia's long-time personal assistant. Miriam Margolyes OBE again plays a lesbian producer in this film who loves Julia almost as much as Julia loves herself. She is constantly followed by her old acting teacher played by Sir Michael Gambon. The film is about Julia who needs to find herself again. She finds love in a younger lover and wanted to consummate with an old friend who kindly tells her that he's playing for the other side. Jeremy Irons plays her husband and producer. The couple are quite a complement to each other. Julia retreats to visit her mother played by the divine Rosemary Harris and her Aunt Carrie played by Rita Tushingham. But still, Annette Bening does a superb job in making you feel for Julia Lambert.