Great Ensemble Cast.

Overall I enjoyed the film very much. Bening gave her normal steller acting. In watching this film for the second time I am very surprised that Bening lost the Oscar to Hilary Swank. Swanks performance was exellent, but Bening was brilliant as the aging stage diva. (Bening actually lost her last two Oscar nods to Swank, in 2000 and 2005) But I really thought the ensemble of characters worked really well together. I also got a chance to watch the deleted scenes and was surprised to see that most of the scenes that were deleted involved Julia and Evie (Juliet Stevenson) I actually thought that Bening and Stevenson had the best chemistry in the film. Juliet Stevenson is truely one of todays most underrated actresses and gave a exellent performance also. But the characters in supporting roles helped very much in the making the film a success, Bruce Greenwood, Rosemary Harris, Michael Gambon and Jeremy Irons all gave wonderful performances. Bening will someday have an Oscar even if she turns into Geraldine Page and gets it after seven nominations!