There's a sense of strain about elongating this wispy tale -- one of Lillian Hellman's many published memories -- to two hours' length; but in that strain, this movie shows its "heart." The gravest problems here are structural -- specifically, the flashbacks, which impart no useful information, which introduce two adolescent actresses who are poor matches to their adult counterparts, and which serve primarily to give a little extra screen time to Vanessa Redgrave in the role of Julia, Lillian's childhood chum, idol, and mentor. (Lillian: "What are you reading?" Julia: "Darwin, Engels, Hegel, Einstein." Lillian, astounded: "Do you understand that stuff?" Julia, shrugging: "Sure.") The real interest of the Julia role lies in its hiddenness. She spends most of the movie out of sight and out of reach in the anti-Fascist underground in pre-WWII Europe, while Lillian (Jane Fonda) attempts sporadically and futilely to track her down. The anxiety over Julia's extended absence builds up well to a beautifully played scene in a Berlin restaurant when the two women are reunited at last. Basically, this is an actors' movie. (Fred Zinnemann, director, covers his lack of visual finesse by employing Douglas Slocombe, cinematographer, who has finesse enough for two.) More basically, this is Jane Fonda's movie. Her impression of a struggling young playwright is very engaging, no matter whether the script's ideas are good (Lillian gestures exasperatedly as she walks all alone on the beach) or bad (Lillian chucks the typewriter out the window). Redgrave, Jason Robards, and Maximilian Schell score well, too, in much less playing time. (1977) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.