‘JULIA,” one of those “Pay attention, I’m giving a tour de force” movies, stars Tilda Swinton being very pleased with her “unflinching” portrait of a slutty alcoholic American party girl who turns kidnapper.
Picture “Fargo” played with no sense of comedy, and you’ll get some idea of the absurdity of this drunken floozy, clicking and wobbling on high heels, often with bits of her anatomy hanging out, trying to pull off the perfect crime.
Desperate for martini money, she gets talked into the kidnapping by a shrieking Mexican woman whose son, a 9-year-old boy, is being raised by a guardian after the death of his father, whose own father is a rich executive who can easily afford ransom demands.
As a crime caper, the movie is slow and pointless, but it’s Swinton’s show — all screechy hysteria and streaked makeup and an American accent that involves punching each syllable into submission. Never for a moment is the movie about anything but this performance, and never does Swinton let you forget she’s acting.
Running time: 138 minutes. Rated R (profanity, violence, nudity). At the Angelika, the Beekman.