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Joe Slutt Reviews Sexy Miranda Otto in Agnieszka Holland's JULIE WALKING HOME!!!
Hey folks, Harry here... well the droolilicious Miranda Otto seems to have a winner with this film, JULIE WALKING HOME, although it seems we're doomed to only seeing it on the Sundance Channel here in the U.S. of A. Probably due to the spiritual nature and the nudity... too often we Americans seem to prudish to allow those subjects to intermingle. Here ya go...
Even though the lion's share of recent Ain't It Cool News coverage has been devoted to Butt-Numb-a-Thon and the impending release of "The Return of the King," I thought I would write a review of a cool film that is flying below radar but might prove to be of some interest to both international cineastes and fans of Peter Jackson's trilogy.
"Julie Walking Home," directed by veteran Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, is a highly unusual supernatural melodrama that stars Miranda Otto (erstwhile known as Eowyn in the "Lord of the Rings" films) in the titular role of a Canadian woman who must grapple with personal tragedy and the impact it creates on her own jaded observances of spirituality.
When Julie arrives home from a vacation with the kids only to discover the blatant infidelities of her longtime companion, Henry (William Fichtner in another grimace-laden performance), Julie's damnation of his moral fiber is instant and stubborn. Her father, a devout Catholic who has always harbored suspicions of her unmarried lover, has his hands full with a mail-order bride who proves to be equally deserving of such suspicions.
Julie's son Nicholas is struck with cancer as if it were willed upon him by the fragmentation of the family unit. Her father's cryptic mail-order bride reveals how her own cancer was sent into remission with only the touch of a mysterious Russian faith healer named Alexei (Lothaire Bluteau, best known for playing another infamous miracle worker in Denys Arcand's "Jesus of Montreal").
Julie rediscovers her own reliance on faith as she travels to Poland, with her ill son in tow, to meet Alexei. Encountering a welcoming reception from the reclusive but gifted healer, Julie takes a shine to Alexei and invites him to join her in Nova Scotia. He is subsequently led into an unknown world where her affections provide him with a glimpse into the decadent dynamics of secular Canadian living ... but at what price?
Although she has spent the past two decades helming many Hollywood and international co-productions, "Julie Walking Home" is the first film that Agnieszka Holland has shot on location in Poland since the fall of the Communist regime that sent her into exile many years prior.
Inarguably one of the major forces of modern Polish cinema, Holland is known to many as a co-scenarist of Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Three Colors" trilogy. Her new film, with its ponderings on the interconnectedness of faith and circumstance, revisits many of her collaborator's favorite themes and motifs.
The screenplay (written by Holland, Arlene Sarner and Roman Gren) is largely a meditation on the sacrifices required of those who purport to perform the work of the spiritual realm through their own mortal vessels. In this sense, "Julie Walking Home" summons comparisons to current scandals within the Catholic church and may send some devout moviegoers storming for the aisles, given that the film's heroine is an unrepentant former Catholic whose newfound faith is dangerously intertwined with her own lustful desires.
Miranda Otto's performance as Julie will also likely raise the eyebrows of fans of "The Lord of the Rings" with her largely uninhibited (and frequently unclothed) interpretation of a volatile and troubled woman whose sensuality registers as both redemptive and corruptive.
In fact, one of the more unusual and intriguing aspects of "Julie Walking Home" is how Ms. Otto's unsheathed bosoms act as something of a divining rod of the guarded intentions of her fellow characters. In the thrall of her undeniable charms, Henry is revealed to be covetous and possessive of her sexuality. Alexei exhibits his own innocent naivete as he receives her with child-like wonder, but in the context of the film's complicated sense of spiritual responsibility, he wills his own personal disaster as a result.
Although it would be lazy to criticize such a complicated and layered work as being "too ambitious," the most frustrating quality of the movie is its inability to answer or even fully explore many of the prickly questions that it raises.
To the extent that "Julie Walking Home" demands a certain amount of faith from its viewers that the mysteries of its narrative comprise a cohesive moral argument, these challenges eerily resemble similar demands that are placed on those who dutifully worship at the feet of organized religion.
I was fortunate enough to see a 35mm print of "Julie Walking Home" this weekend at the Washington Jewish Film Festival, as the film does not currently have a theatrical distributor. However, it appears that the movie will be airing on the Sundance Channel later this month and I encourage anyone who is interested to take a peek at this unique and off-the-wall effort.
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To all the "frist" wanna-be posters out there, eat it! :)
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Not Simpson, I mean the guy who gave us the Iliad and the Odyssey. Note how Miranda Otto is always "droolilicious," much the same as quicktime is "glorious." These adjectives are a ritual component of naming, the same way that in the Odyssey Pallas Athena is always "grey-eyed" and the sea is "wine-dark." There's a name for and a complicated theory behind these kind of signifiers, but I can't remember either. Just felt like comparing Harry to Western intellectual history's greatest storyteller.
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I've bought my ticket mentally. ESP kicks in when hot chicks take off their clothes.
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Fuck that was a hefty PLANT, Miranda is beautiful though, absolutely gorgeous, and yes she's done nude several times, want the pics, I have 'em. The movie sounds boring, needs vampires and werewolves that rape teenagers with tentacles, and someone needs to do Kung-Fu.
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http://members.fortunecity.com/oops105/oops_miranda_otto.html
click on small pix to enlarge. These pix are screen caps from her movies, all real nothing doctored. The same site has infamous paparazzi photos of topless Natalie Portman on the beach just click N on the A-Z barcode. -
I was convinced that Miranda Otto was one of the most beautiful women on the planet when I saw the footage of her training in the Stunt Person documentary on the Two Towers Extended DVD. She could really move and handled herself (and her weapon) with confidence. Nothing is sexier than that.
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I was just literally struck dumb by your observation. Your are absolutely, positively right about the Homeric use of placeholder phrases. I am not sure if current theory assigns a particular meaning or import to the use of such phrases beyond the obvious mnemonic benefit that would have accrued back when the poems were part of the verbal tradition. Maybe Harry uses them not just as a stylistic device, but because it makes it unnecessary to think of a new description to write. A time-saver. But you are quite right that Harry is the direct descendant of Homer.
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Dec 15, 2003 8:18:11 AM CST
And by the way, can one really be said to be "Planting" a review
by fluffyunbound
If this review was written by the director's English friend or something it's more of a spy report than a Plant.
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BIG underpants. Still, if I were to become the next King of Gondor, I'd choose Ms. Otto as my Queen(no offense to Liv Tyler).
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Lezzie topless pic of Miranda when she posed for B&W mag:
http://maidenfair.net/miranda/bw2.jpg
I saw JWH movie on TIFF last year and it sucked, nude Otto isn`t anything special in the buff (needs a tummy tuck but at least her boobs are real I`ll give her that). She is nude in many Aussie flicks such as Love Serenade (topless), Nostradamus Kid (boobs and butt plus shags ER`s Noah Wyle), In the Winter Cold (topless), Kin (full frontal) and some. JWH has totally stupid story SPOILER
where Julie deflowers a virginal Russian healer and he loses his healing gift because of the nooky! I kid you not.
END OF SPOILER
I wouldn`t recommand it even for nude Eowyn. Download screen caps instead, any porn site should have them.
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Anybody interested in "Julie Walking Home" should know that it was already released on DVD in Canada several months ago.Amazon.ca should have copies of it by now.
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This was on yesterday on Sundance 2 on Comcast cable.
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Miranda has pretty big ass herself, definitely isn`t small-assed like Swirling Ass Diaz (which is my fave celeb ass, BTW). As for Tyler`s lips they are No.1 requested lips among plastic surgery freaks. No.1 ass is J-Lo`s, no surprise here, No.1 nose is Kidman`s,etc.
For everyone who want to compare tits here`s topless Liv:
http://fortunecity.co.uk/cinerama/film/394/oops_liv_tyler.html
and topless Miranda:
http://members.fortunecity.com/oops105/miranda_otto003.jpg
Enjoy! -
Comparing an un-ethical pseudo-journalist who can't spell to the father of Western Literature? Ridiculous!
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Erudite yet to the point.
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