Julia

Am I wrong to have enjoyed this film? Am I wrong to enjoy the especially weird Mexico leg of this film? I can see the terribly-developed relationship between the titular character of Julia and the boy that she kidnapped, I know it is ridiculous to be asked to believe that these two characters apparently have a mother-son relationship after she has kept him drugged and bound for most of the film, this relationship is the weakest point, what I enjoyed about this film was the gun-touting, tough as nails Julia that recalls women of the Action Heroine films of the 80s, the women of ‘Thelma & Louise’ and ‘Blue Steel’, women who have been more recently seen in ‘Sympathy For Lady Vengeance’ and ‘Death Proof’, women get guns and will no longer take the shit dished onto them by a patriarchal society, it is feminism schlock (films that pander to the feminist audience with no actual attention paid to the ideals), it is a guilty pleasure sure, but there is something fun about it in its slightly satirical nature, these films aren’t taking themselves seriously, often their characters are absurd, while Julia does aim for something deeper it can’t help but recall these other films, thanks largely to the excellent, multi-layered performance of Tilda Swinton, who must have seen the absurdity even if the director didn’t, many have compared this film to Cassavette’s ‘Gloria’, Cassavettes got the reality of his characters and relationships right in his film (as he always did), this film is better suited to be talked about in relation to those gun-touting action heroines of old.