Julia

There's something uneasy about Julia, the English-language debut from writer-director Erick Zonca (The Dreamlife of Angels, 1998), despite Zonca's own credentials and the casting of the mighty Tilda Swinton in the lead role.

Inspired by John Cassavetes' 1980 film Gloria (with its fiery central turn from Gena Rowlands), Julia pitches itself somewhere between art-house and Hollywood cinema.

Julia (Swinton) is a 40-something wreck, an LA-based alcoholic who, when fired from her job, is encouraged to attend AA meetings by an ex-boyfriend (Saul Rubinek). There she meets Elena (Kate del Castillo) who begs Julia to help her kidnap her son (Aidan Gould). This Julia does, but the threadbare plan begins to fall apart, and soon she is headed for the Mexican border, pursued by some thoroughly unsavoury types, and making ransom demands from the boy's wealthy grandfather while the boy is stashed in the boot of her car.

Missing here is the lightness of touch that Cassavetes brought to his flick, and while Swinton and Rubinek turn in the kind of full, unflinching performances you'd expect, the film runs at such a persistently fevered pace that it's hard to stop and admire their subtlety. ·