everything you have heard about this movie is true.

An Exercise In Nonsense

A Major Disappointment

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Annette Bening plays a Margo Channing like star of the British stage in Being Julia. Unlike Margo Channing who decided in the end she was tired of it all and wanted to settle down, Bening decides she's in one terrible rut and needs some battery recharging.The batteries get recharged with a handsome young American played by Shaun Evans. He's a stage door johnny and waits like Eve Harrington for a chance to meet his acting idol. She's long ceased having sex with her husband actor/producer Jeremy Irons. She responds to his innocent charm and the two of them are going hot and heavy.But Evans is quite the charmer and he's working an agenda big time. Part of it includes another woman he's hitting the hayloft with Lucy Punch. She too is an actress and Evans wants to get her a part in the next play that Irons produces and Annette stars in.It's all so terribly British even with American Bening in the lead. It reminds me so much of that famous cruise that the Prince of Wales took with Wallis Simpson and her husband in the Mediterranean where everyone brought their spouses and significant other mistresses and boyfriends. Being Julia is set in that time period and the sets and costumes reflect it well. By all means do your thing, but be discreet and don't let the tabloid press of Beaverbook and Rothermere get a hold of it.Poor Jeremy Irons. You think he's being played in all this, but believe he's working an agenda too.Annette Bening got one of her four Best Actress nominations, but she was beaten out by Hilary Swank who gave a once in a lifetime performance in Million Dollar Baby. Still Bening's accolades were well deserved.A little bit of All About Eve and a little but of the Rob Lowe/Andrew McCarthy brat pack film Class is the best way to describe Being Julia. But it's in a class by itself.

It's London 1938. Julia Lambert (Annette Bening) is a successful stage actress but she wants a break. Tom Fennel is a young American fan. His devotion turns the diva onto a gitty affair. Soon, he's flirting with younger actress Avice Crichton (Lucy Punch).This is all about Bening. It's her show. Tom Sturridge doesn't exactly shine. The movie needs him to be a big star actor but he's much too bland. He's a real dud. On the other hand, Lucy Punch is fun and a funny foil. It does seem that this wouldn't be anything without Bening. She almost wills this into something good from lesser material. There are plenty of great actors around but it's Bening's movie from start to finish.

Good news first. Annette Benning is good here, as well as Irons and the actor playing Roger. Bad news: they didn't have much to play actually as the script had butchered the story and the characters. All the irony, sardonic narratives, Julia's inward comments were left out along with a great deal of the story and some terrific scenes. For instance, hilarious seduction episode between Julia and Charles from the book - why substitute it with that pale explanation? and just for the record, Charles wasn't gay, he was apparently impotent. Well, the script made him impotent as a character since one can hardly recollect his part and what he's for there anyway. Same goes for Evie and Dolly, they just don't mean anything. There's not much of Michael, too, obviously because they left out the complete "before" section of the book. And it mattered. Tom is OK though slightly inconsistent. We don't see his development from an obscure admirer to corrupted social climber. Neither the development of Julia's feelings for him (apart from her constant giggling). All in all, better get yourself the book.

"Being Julia" is an old-fashioned love song to the theat-ah and the divas who are to be found there. But even more, it's a love letter to Annette Bening, who plays the title diva in an Oscar-nominated performance that makes you wish the film would go on forever.This is pretty lightweight stuff, but Bening is sensational. You can tell she's having a blast, and her enthusiasm for the project and her character is contagious. Nothing else in the film matters except for her, which is as it should be. Certainly her Julia would have it no other way.Grade: A-