Good start, but then it gets ruined

Admirable film.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Lillian Hellman wrote some great, nuanced plays in her life, so it's odd her own life story is written so flatly and unevenly. While the acting is good, there is no arc or drama in the whole movie. (Spoiler) The introduction and original title of the memoir hints at that there is a chance she will "repent" and change her mind, betraying her friend or something like that...but we know she won't, or else there is no movie (it's one of those films where you know exactly how every character will play out in the first five minutes). That would have made a more interesting film, but Julia is essentially a spy-caper with a Dashiell Hammett cameo. Instead the movie builds to a dramatic point where the protagonist stumbles into an anti-climactic money-smuggling ring on a train. And the then her friend dies and never tells where her baby is.We don't even know whether there is a baby at all or if that was just a ploy to smuggle one more kid out of Nazi Germany (which would have made a more interesting plot point: a dogmatic woman disavowing her past and social conventions, manipulating and duping her weaker friend in emotional blackmail, adopting a needy orphan) but that's clearly not how it was intended to be interpreted. It's so po-faced and morally pristine the only characters I really enjoyed were the two scumbag incestuous aristocrats played by John Glover and Meryl Streep.

At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda) undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.Somehow this ended up winning three awards at the Oscars: Best Supporting Actor for Jason Robards, Best Supporting Actress for Vanessa Redgrave, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Alvin Sargent's script. Must have been a slow year.Although this is not a bad film, it suffers from being a load of baloney. The original author made up this tale to make herself look daring and brave, but in reality she had no connection to the events and was a complete fraud. If we accept he story as a story, it is pretty good, but because the film uses all the "real" names, it sort of rewrites history for the worst.

Friendships and love. Memory and longing. A film that lets you dwell without forcing you to. The story, a true account, told by Lillian Hellman in "Pentimento" was debased by one of Hellman's fans that became her assistant. Imagine. Trying to destroy your mentor. Real or imaginary the story lived in Hellman's heart and mind. Fred Zinnemann created a world for the story to acquire a true human dimension. A triumph. Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave are extraordinary as the inseparable childhood friends, Lilli and Julia. Jason Robards, is utterly wonderful as Dashiell Hammett. The film is also the first for Meryl Streep in a short, very short but memorable character. The script by Alvin Sargent, magnificent. Highly recommended.

We often learn about the past from text books and documentaries which detail larger conflicts, such as the rise of Nazism in Germany which leads to the Second World War. Although understanding the larger history is certainly important, experiencing a story about how individuals and their lives are forever changed by conflict can be as important and even more enlightening. "Julia" is a film chronicling how several people's lives are changed by the rise of fascism in Germany.The story is told by and centered on Lillian Hellman (Lilli, as portrayed by Jane Fonda, academy-nominated for Best Actress) about her childhood friend Julia (Vanessa Redgrave in an academy-award winning performance) who becomes an active force against fascism in Vienna and Germany before World War II. She originally comes from a wealthy family in Britain. As a minor, Julia resides with her grandparents in a country estate larger than many small towns in the mid-west, and her young friend Lillian often visits her. The younger Lilli and Julia are played by younger actors who are nearly as convincing as their older counterparts. Unlike her grandparents, Julia shows from a young age an interest in social issues and class inequity. The narrative often juxtaposes between Julia and Lilli when they are young and their lives as adults. But even when young, Julia and Lilli engage in discussions about social injustice. At one point, Julia recounts a visit to Cairo where she sees the immense and widespread poverty. When she comments on what she sees, her grandparents say "Don't look at them." The story also has another thread: Lillian Hellman, struggling female playwright living with the immortal Dashielle Hammet at a beach house probably near cape cod or Connecticut north of New York. She strives to write a good play. Hammett is her ultimate critic, and has no sympathy when she's unable to produce to her potential. The three narratives are constantly being interspersed: Lillian as a girl with her young friend Julia, Lillian as the struggling writer with Hammett, and her friendship with Julia as an adult. At one point, she finishes her first play, "The Children's Hour", which makes her a national and international celebrity.While we mostly see Julia in flashback, we meet Julia rarely in the present-moment of the narrative. The first is a devastating incident concerning extremists infiltrating and butchering members of a hospital where Julia works, probably providing care for the needy. Then later, when she is vacationing with friends from the US South in Paris, Lilli receives a message from Julia via a strange man, Johann (Maximilian Schell) who speaks about a cause and movement against Hitler. Julia and the members of the movement request Lillian to engage in a task, which at the forefront seems simple yet is potentially dangerous. Her mission is to transport something important from Paris to Berlin while she's on her way to Moscow. Trouble is, she's never played a secret agent before.Every once in awhile, a film which is both moving and insightful appears on the screen. "Julia", which at the beginning seems more like a character study of Lilli, Hammett, and Julia, until the sequence concerning her mission turns the story into a riveting plot. Underneath the entire experience are overtones about the rages and ultimate tragedy of fascism. This is by far my favorite performance by Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave, whose friendship appears like you might imagine two people who have known each other for a long time. A bit to my disappointment which in no way reflects on my view of the film, the character of Julia may be somewhat fictional. Hellman in her book Pentimento, which contains the novella entitled Julia for the which the film is based, may be a combination of fact and fiction. But either way, the story is compelling, plausible, and ultimately beautiful. Whether or not I believe in a real Julia, I believed in the character of the film and in Lilli, her beloved friend, and the story they tell.