Being Julia might just as well been titled Bening Julia, because not once in her career has Annette starred in a movie that seemed anywhere near as tailor made for her. Her fleeting moods and beguiling catiness are so perfectly suited for this film, that when she's not on screen, you forget what the film is about or even why you're watching it.

Being Julia is set in Depression era London and Julia Lambert is the most famous stage actress of her generation. On a nightly basis she brings adoring crowds to their feet playing melodramatic, lovelorn heroines with an ease that leaves her unfulfilled as soon as the final curtain falls. Her marriage to Jeremy Irons (who is also her manager) is one of calculated convenience - and Julia makes the most of this by engaging in one romantic dalliance after another.

Following an unexpected break-off with her current side-dish (Bruce Greenwood - who finally confesses that he is more interested in playing for the other team, (he's gay) the jilted Diva soon begins to fall for a wet-behind-the-ears American who is more than young enough to be her son. Tom Fennel, the ambitious youngster played by Shaun Evans has come to London - ostensibly to learn the ropes of the theater business - but it is soon rather apparent that he is smitten with the stage beauty and has an agenda of his own.

Before long Evans is making several awkward advances, and for her part Julia is flattered by the attentions of this pretty young upstart and long story short the two are soon making regular matinee performances in Tom's modest flat. To be honest, there's nothing particularly earth-shattering about any of this pedestrian philandering, but Bening manages to make it more than watchable. Julia, of course, makes the dreadful mistake of falling for her young lover. Which we see coming just as readily as we can see that Evans attentions are quick to wander back toward girls his own age.

Enter a mostly untalented engenue named Avice Crichton (Lucy Punch).who has been using a few womanly wiles of her own in an attempt to secure a role in Julia's new play. Not only has she won the heart of Tom, but she is also playing the other side of the fence by sleeping with Jeremy Irons. Thus both her husband and her young lover begin to lobby rather clumsily for Julia to take notice of the young actress so as to gain Julia's consent to cast the comely blonde in a pivotal role in her next big production. Naturally Julia has by now learned of the gravity of all this scheming, and quite uncharacteristically welcomes Miss Chricton with open arms - even to the point of suggesting ways the production might be altered to give the new actress the best possible advantage to make a favorable impression.

Suffice it to say that the real joy of Being Julia takes place in the last 10 minutes of the film. By using her years of stage experience she manages to exact brutal revenge against those who have contrived to fool her and in so doing brings down the house and insures that her new play will be another blockbuster. Overall, Being Julia is nothing more substantial than a diverting little lark, but Bening proves herself worthy of her award nominations and single-handedly makes the film worth watching.