Hawaii is the first movie in which I've seen Julie that wasn't a fairy tale or musical. I had doubts that I would be able to see her as anything but the stereo-typical singing British nanny or Queen mother. Jerusha Bromley Hale completely changed that. I forgot I was even watching Julie Andrews, she so completely embodied the role. The revelation of her character's death made quite an impact on me.
shareIt is a very interesting performance that's for sure. But in depicting a severely repressed woman the performance itself is repressed. I don't think this is JA's fault but rather the direction. This sort of performance needs some up close work and the director seemed to have been single minded about the idea of it being an epic and the cinematography seldom moves in close. By contrast Lean spends a lot of time on O'Toole's face in Lawrence of Arabia, and the result could not have been achieved otherwise.
The unflattering direction of JA is made worse by the scenery chewing antics of Von Sydow and Harris.
Check out The Americanization of Emily. This is one of her earlier films, with James Garner, where they play a pair of not at all likable people who fall for each other. A very interesting early adult role of hers.
The bad news is you have houseguests. There is no good news.