Miss Julie (2014)

Purely Joyful Movie!

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

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.

Movies based on plays often have a particular - peculiar - feel. They take place in one or two rooms. There are only 2 or 3 castmembers. It takes places over the space of a few hours. Now - if you're riveted by that sort of microscopic examination of 3 characters' neuroses on one L-O-N-G night, then you'll LOVE this movie. If you're the type who would say, "Yeesh, get over yourselves already!" you'll hate it. The pointlessness of this is astounding - but I'm not big on watching train wreck personalities.

I found this one on Netflix streaming movies. I like all the actors and each does a fine job with their roles. However I don't care for the movie. It is well-made for what it is, an adaptation of a stage play. But save the very last scene (after SPOILERS below) nothing at all happens. It is a morality play. They talk, for very long periods of the film, trading ideas on life, engaging in some word-play, but nothing happens.Jessica Chastain is Miss Julie in 1890s Ireland. She seems spoiled and abuses her power over the service staff. Nothing serious just orders them around for her own amusement. She isn't a very nice person.Colin Farrell is John, the master's valet. He is a good, honest, level-headed person who seems to have a nice attachment and relationship with Samantha Morton as Kathleen the cook and kitchen manager. But Julie seems determined to get John to seduce her and he has to delicately balance saying 'no' with not being insubordinate. He didn't want to lose his job and he doesn't want to alienate Kathleen.I am certain that there is an audience for this movie but it is not me. The actors are good but the movie uses 2+ hours to tell a 20-minute story.SPOILERS: At the end when it became obvious that Julie was not going to get her way, at the same time realizing what a shallow and messed up person she is, she walks out to the back of the estate, reposes at a stream, and kills herself, we see red blood flowing to fill the stream with color.

I'm not familiar with the source material, but the movie version of it, will not be everyones cup of tea. It feels like a drag and the pacing is slow to say the least. The characters seem to be stuck at a place where it'll be hard to feel something for them. Having said all that, the acting is superb and if you like your drama to be slow paced, but filled with dialog to make you think about, this could be exactly the one you were looking for.It never did have the punch or the feeling that it could be something great to me, but that's always in the eye of the beholder and might feel different for people who know more about it (more familiar with source material) than myself. It also feels like it is way too long for its own good. While good, there are things that make this tough to watch ...

August Strindberg wrote his play MISS JULIE in 1888 and while it is often performed today by classical repertory companies, the story is strong and deserves the very frank and stage-like production that brilliant actress Liv Ullmann brings to the screenplay adaptation and directs with a sure hand.The story is set on Midsummer's Eve on the estate of a Count in Fermanagh, Ireland. Miss Julie (Jessica Chastain in a brilliant performance), the young woman of the title, is drawn to a senior servant, a valet named Jean (Colin Farrell also quite brilliant), who is particularly well traveled, well mannered and well read. The action takes place in the kitchen of Miss Julie's father's manor, where Jean's fiancée, a servant named Kathleen (Samantha Morton), cooks and sometimes sleeps while Jean and Miss Julie talk. On this night the relationship between Miss Julie and Jean escalates rapidly to feelings of love and is subsequently consummated. Over the course of the story Miss Julie and Jean battle until Jean convinces her that the only way to escape her predicament is to commit suicide.While the acting and cinematography and production values are excellent, the aspect of Liv Ullmann's emphasis on Strindberg's reason for committing this work to the public – as one historian phrased it well, 'Miss Julie and Jean, as vying against each other in an evolutionary "life and death" battle for a survival of the fittest. The character, Miss Julie, represents the last of an old aristocratic breed about to die out. Whereas Jean represents one who is clambering upwards, and who is more fit to thrive because he is better able to adapt in terms of the "life roles" he can take on. The play contains a variety of themes, partly because Miss Julie's actions are motivated by a range of factors and influences: her class, her desires and impulsive nature, her father, and the dynamic traumas of her family histories.'The musical score is brilliant – various combinations of violin, cello and piano with works by Schubert and Bach performed by Håvard Gimse, piano, Truls Mørk, cello and Arve Tellefsen, violin. The music is an integral part of the atmosphere. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, May 15