Julia
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Year Released: 1977
Rating: 2.0
Playwright Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda) takes a risky journey into Nazi Germany in order to sneak money (hidden in a hat) to her childhood pal Julia (Vanessa Redgrave), who has become a member of the Resistance. Since information has come out - courtesy of Mary McCarthy - that Ms. Hellman completely invented the story and wrote it as non-fiction, that places an additional damper on a movie that's already restrained to a great degree (because of Zinnemann) and riddled with flow-killing flashbacks to Hellman's idyllic youth with Julia. The real prized moments in this are for the scenes with Hellman and long-term partner Dashiell Hammett (Jason Robards) and her encounter with Julia in Berlin - everything else feels like padding.
