Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

SnoopyStyle 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.

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

Bene Cumb For me, this fact raises Bening to my 2nd place after Streep in my TOP Actress List... Usually, Brits (especially if from higher society) are played by Brits themselves; main cast members of Being Julia are British or Irish as well. Bening is really superb and for this role she got lots of praise, incl. Academy Award nomination.For many modern viewers, the plot may seem slow at times, as the screenplay is based on the 1937 novel Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham. But the background and atmosphere are well depicted - perhaps due to the fact that both directing and cinematography were performed by Europeans (Hungarians). Highly recommended to those fond of middle/high class life in the 1930ies. and/or intrigues and events related to theater and production.

robert-temple-1 The amazing Istvan Szabo, who has often directed spellbinding classics, not least being 'Sunshine' (1999), here unleashes another magnificent work upon the sensitive solar plexuses of a palpitating public. But this time he pulls out of a hat an actress who had never previously really had the focus of audience attention directed onto her properly. One 'sort of knew of her', but not really. And here she is, a fully-fledged Athena springing from the brow of Zeus. I speak of Annete Bening suddenly revealed here as having more talent than any two hundred other actresses, and delivering one of the most amazing performances of any actress in screen history. The range and sensitivity and sheer genius of her performance are simply off the Richter Scale. 'You ain't never seen nuthin' like this afore!' She plays an ageing actress who achieves one of the most masterfully-crafted stage revenges ever imagined. It was a perfect choice to have the brilliant script written by Ronnie Harwood, who knows the theatre like he knows his own nose in the shaving mirror. The film is based on a novella called 'Theatre' by Somerset Maugham, which I must confess is amongst all the other Somerset Maugham books which I have never read. In this film, the supernaturally inspired Bening is surrounded by a cast of worthies who do their stuff in fine fettle. There is the always brilliant and mesmerising Michael Gambon at her elbow, as a kind of spirit-guide, witty, compelling, and this dodgy screen tactic actually works to perfection, so wheww! (Pulled that one off!) Tom Sturridge is wonderful as Bening's son, Rosemary Harris as always is wonderful. Juliet Stevenson slinks around in an inspired fashion as a helpful dressing-room ferret who might catch a rat if given half a chance, Jeremy Irons has a rather thankless role of Bening's husband who lives an independent life, so independent that we rarely see him, although he is suitably magisterial when required. Rita Tushingham returns to the screen for a touching cameo portrayal of a shy aunt. Miriam Margolyes is as usual stunning with her vigour and wit as a rich woman with a hopeless lesbian hankering after Bening, which is shown in its full pathos, not least because Margolyes knows the feeling. Everybody shines. This is one of those film where everything works. But all that talent is reduced to the status of planets circling round Bening's Sun. This is the most dazzling, breathtaking achievement, and aren't we the lucky ones.