Miss Julie
Director: Liv Ullmann
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 2.0
Accomplished Swedish actress Ullmann's take on the classic Strindberg 'naturalistic' play has wealthy Julie (Jessica Chastain) become romantically involved with her (lower class) valet John (Colin Farrell) ... which ends in tragedy. Something is off about not only Ullmann's flavorless approach - which is too distant and cold despite the sexual tension in the text - but about Farrell's portrayal of John, who comes across as being more of a patsy than a worldly manipulator. It does acquire a modicum of intensity once John impulsively beheads Miss Julie's bird at the end, but by that point it's too little, too late. Alf Sjöberg's 1951 screen version was a considerably more imaginative interpretation.
