Apparently I’ve been watching things backwards. I had been on the lookout for Tilda Swinton in The Limits of Control (2009), in which she made a very brief appearance. I didn’t regret I had not noticed her in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Then, I saw her in Julia (2008), and here, at last, we have a knockout performance.
This movie rips a gut. It is a phenomenal portrayal of a madwoman alcoholic who kidnaps an heir to a fortune and lands him in Mexico only to save him from malevolent Mexican kidnappers there. This movie has perhaps become even more pertinent today than it was in 2008, what with a handful of Mexican states currently falling to organized crime.
Two years ago, perhaps Mexicans were more concerned about kidnappings; now we are all concerned about ruthless jackpot crimes, a type of which this film, with its high-voltage, super adrenaline amped up action, aptly portrays.
I’ve been converted. I used to think Swinton was a snob. Now I think she deserves to be one, if that’s what she wants. She’s earned it.
