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What do you think Julia Roberts brings to this film?


It would be really helpful for your views on this for my film studies coursework. so what do you think she brings to ths film?
Thankyou x

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Horror.

Julia Roberts is a master of horror and she brings a strong element of horror into every role she plays. From Pretty Woman (1990) to Erin Brokovich (2000) she takes the cake when it comes to eerily driven scenes. Ten years of commitment can really show when it's actually applicable.

Yo, that one was on the rails.

when it comes to gluttony and Staredom. Ho-bag.

See you in the street, Lovers...
-rappin' JBDeep fried frog legsThe CrapCrtitter was the one in the pool of Poo. Dancing, you know it baby.

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Ignore Boland. He's an obvious troll who followed me here. He's followed me to a half dozen boards. Sick.

Not sure what you mean by brings to it. She plays tough and fragile, idealist and cynic.

Inside every cynical person is a disappointed idealist.

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Not sure what boland is on about.

Julia Roberts is best suited to playing strong female parts or playing a complete bitch. She's great in pretty woman and erin brockovich due to both of those characters being feisty, strong, energetic etc.

She's also great at playing evil and bitchy roles like the queen in Mirror Mirror. She's very believable at acting like a nasty selfish bitch.

To answer your question she doesn't bring much of anything to this film, she's been miscast and this is due to her being completely unsuited to playing a character who is empathetic, and cares about feminism or womens education. She's not believable as a professor or as anyone particularly educated. She's not someone who overcomes oppression and tackles it head on. She's more someone who survives and excels at the expense of someone else.

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I agree
This role would have been better suited to a quiet but intelligent actress.
Someone like Susan Sarandon



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This character doesn't blast into this school all guns blazing with a 'Feminism Rulez' bumper sticker on her car, a short pixie haircut and a penchant for wearing checkered shirts. Nor is she a bitter old hag who's missed the boat man-wise.

Rather she's a beautiful, gentle, forgiving type - she doesn't force her views down anyone's throat, preferring instead to present her own point of view gently and letting others come to their own conclusion.

Julia Roberts is an extremely attractive woman who could marry anyone she wanted. You wouldn't want to cast someone average looking in this role - otherwise you'd get the whole 'well she's ugly and that's why she's not married and such a feminist' thing rather than the whole 'she's beautiful and could marry if she wanted to but chooses not to' thing.

She's gentle - she doesn't need to overpower people with her personality - she has a quiet, reassured confidence and is able to persuade people with reason and warmth. But she can also be kind of scary when she wants to be - however, it's not her main personality, just a secondary trait. In this kind of scene you need someone who can express themselves eloquently, someone who can appear angry enough to be intimidating but at the same time be able to make valid points with their wit and use of language. A lot of people who get angry just start yelling and repeating themselves so you need someone who only appears to get partially angry. So I think Julia does this well. She never goes over the deep end.

I find her intelligent enough; she's no neuroscientist but seems to know enough to both be able to hold her own intellectually and be able to sense other people to be able to work well with them.

So all in all I think she did an okay job. It would be interesting to see someone else's take on this role but all in all I think most actresses would have played it the same way.

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So the OP asked a question in 2007 and got answers in 2015? The age of the internet ain't all it's cracked up to be.

Ok jodie, hope that film studies course served you well. I would call Julia's role in this film an audience surrogate. She is there to bring all of our 21st century enlightenment into this very narrow community of 1950s upper class Americans. We can shake our heads in disbelief right along with this character as she watches intelligent and well-educated young women give up on their BAs and JDs for Mrs. degrees.

~ fin ~

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