With Rose Plays Julie (2019) hey have crafted a slow-burn thriller that builds a sense of dread inside an exquisite world of immaculate architecture, rendered through an icy performance style and enveloped by a claustrophobic soundtrack. The urge for contact is overwhelming, and Rose travels to London, where she poses as a potential buyer for Ellen's home, and in so doing meets meets Eva, Ellen's teenage daughter. They also say revenge is sweet. The silences in "Rose Plays Julie" border on unnerving, especially when placed up against loud clanging doors, the crunch of car wheels on gravel, any sound at all. Something is frozen in Rose, it's like she's screaming for help from the bottom of a well. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here. Are you excited for Rose Plays Julie? But there are other disguises she's used, invisible ones she's used to get through her life. Cathy Butler doubles up on a story of a young woman searching for her biological mother. Irish filmmaking duo Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s fourth feature film, “Rose Plays Julie… Rose Plays Julie at first seems a grounded mystery film destined to unravel into endless dramatic revelations for the characters. There is a fine line to be drawn between overbearing self-seriousness and exposed emotional affect. The story’s direction becomes deflatingly predictable once all the various characters and plot elements are set up. But "Rose Plays Julie" knows in its bones, and revels in the fact, that there is nothing so scrumptious, so heavenly, as a dish gone icy, icy cold. "Rose Plays Julie" is a sparsely populated film, giving the impression that Rose, Ellen, and Peter are charging towards one another on a vast and empty battlefield. When I think about Julie, I picture her like me. No one would guess. It's an accurate depiction of the dissociative states of the three main characters, who move through their worlds like somnambulists, compartmentalizing ugliness where they never have to look at it, and yet ugly is running the show. It is Rose (Ann Skelly) who decides to face the ugly, name it, bring it out of the shadows, and therefore break the spell. Gillen, a superb actor, gives us Peter as an ever-shifting kaleidoscope. From directors Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, Rose Plays Julie follows a young woman who tracks down her birth parents, looking for answers to her identity. Overall, ROSE PLAYS JULIE is an exceptional film that is uncomfortable to sit through because of the subject matter but still highly recommended. They can conceal the truth. The film covers difficult subject matter, and at times is difficult to watch. Rose puts on a pixie-ish, Louise Brooks-style wig, and approaches him asking if she can volunteer on the dig. Rose Plays Julie review: a mythic thriller about women and violence Desperate Optimists’ potent new film poses ethical dilemmas and undercuts Eurowestern narrative traditions with every twist of the plot and shift in tone. On virtual cinemas and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. It starts … When Rose puts on the wig and "plays" Julie, she can express herself for the first time. The “Julie” identity provides both a shield against her mother’s trauma and a vessel to contain it. Ellen feels that force, too. Masks serve multiple purposes. If you love an intense revenge story or a film that will give you a good cry, you should seek it … As the title expresses, "Rose Plays Julie" is a film about the disguises we wear either by choice or unconsciously, the identities we choose to present to the world, as opposed to who we are when we're alone behind closed doors. Rose Plays Julie is a nice little psychological thriller about an adopted woman finding out the hard truth about her biological parents. Obviously, those aren’t the only people who should see it. Both build a slow paced and gloomy film, yet not impenetrable. I anticipated horror, stalker, thriller, drama and it kept making me wonder throughout. Ellen is seen wearing various costumes throughout, a red nun's habit with white wimple, an 18th-century gown, a contemporary police officer's uniform. For Ellen, disguises are the tricks of her actress trade. “Rose Plays Julie,” written and directed by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, frames its sexual trauma as an intergenerational one. Rose seems capable of anything by that point, and Peter is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Rose then tracks Ellen down to a movie set, peeking out at her from behind a nearby building. Her father, an archaeologist named Peter (Aiden Gillen) is easily found, overseeing a dig out in the countryside. Rose Plays Julie is about masks, which considering what civilization is going through is highly appropriate.The strikingly beautiful Irish actress Ann Skelly who plays Rose/Julie is the pivot on which the plot performs it tragic dance of doom. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. Both build a slow paced and gloomy film, yet not impenetrable. "Julie" is a whispered echo of the birth mother she's never known. Rose says in voiceover, "I like the name Julie. An uneasy and suspenseful collision of social drama, revenge thriller, and classical tragedy, Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy’s Rose Plays Julie defies a quick or easy analysis.. Ann Skelly is the eponymous Rose/Julie, a young veterinary student who was adopted as a baby. Report Findings Share Significant Societal Impact in Inclusion of Women in Studies During Women's Health Week at 2021 Vivian Pinn Symposium, Getting Away With It: Mads Mikkelsen and Anders Thomas Jensen on Riders of Justice, Sun-Kissed Tension: On the Staying Power of Deray’s La Piscine. Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Rose Plays Julie uses a woman's quest to know her biological parents as the foundation for an unsettling story that compellingly confounds expectations. Directed by two directors, Rose Plays Julie certainly takes inspiration from filmmakers like Yorgos Lanthimos and Michael Haneke, but only that, inspiration. Tom Comerford's cinematography highlights the strangeness of these spaces, the barely inhabited college campus, the generic quality of Ellen's house, the shadowy expanse of Rose's dorm room. Peter's disguise is the most damaging, and the most necessary (for him). It is like a stream that is turbulent under the tranquil surface. ‘Rose Plays Julie’ Review: A Shivery Psych Thriller Channelling Mythic and Modern Female Rage A young woman's encounter with her birth … When Rose shows up in her life unannounced, Brady's face flickers with a potent mix of uneasiness and terror, but there's calmness there too. But this device can sometimes work against the story, too. It looks at the double life of women through the ideas of external success and internal torment as well as the trope of the naive girl versus the seductive avenger. When a deer falls into the archaeological dig and has to be "put down," Peter's anguish is the most intriguing thing about him, connecting him to the biological daughter he doesn't even know he has, whom we saw in an early scene shedding a tear during a euthanasia procedure in her veterinary program. Directed by two directors, Rose Plays Julie certainly takes inspiration from filmmakers like Yorgos Lanthimos and Michael Haneke, but only that, inspiration. You only hear later what it was she said.) There’s a kind of horror to the unearthing, though all of Rose Plays Julie’s characters are, in some way, haunted. “Rose Plays Julie”, written and directed by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, frames his sexual trauma as a cross-generational one. Ellen’s baby was born of rape, and she had asked that there be no further contact with Julie after the adoption. They also reveal the truth. Literally. Brady is excellent as Ellen, a woman who turned her back on her past, shoving it into a closet where she never had to look at it again. Irish filmmaking duo Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s fourth feature film, "Rose Plays Julie," is a rare example of the latter in that it is able to shape its story with an urgent intensity that feels neither overbearing nor contrived. It would be so much easier in real life if villains announced their villainy with mustache-twirling behavior, but unfortunately, villains often take on pleasing disguises. It contemplates the double lives of girls by means of the concepts of outer success and inside anguish, in addition to the trope of the naïve woman versus the seductive avenger. Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 "Rose Plays Julie" is a sparsely populated film, giving the impression that Rose, Ellen, and Peter are charging towards one another on a vast and empty battlefield. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/movies/rose-plays-julie-review.html Rose is a veterinary student at a Dublin university, and in the midst of an identity crisis. Read full review They say revenge is a dish best served cold. Obviously Rose Plays Julie tackles tough topics but the needlessly bleak and contrived subject matter clashes with the naturalistic style. Eva has no idea that the tremblingly vulnerable woman asking her questions is her half-sister. As far as #MeToo thrillers go, “Rose Plays Julie” stands out for its unpredictability. Rose has tracked down her birth mother, a London-based actress named Ellen (Orla Brady). Part of her, a secret part, always knew this day would come. It's hard to imagine people just hanging out and talking and having fun in any of the interiors in the film. With the long, luminous face of a Victorian romance novel character, Rose is a bit of a cipher, seemingly dedicated to her studies but also sort of detached about it too. This potent modern tale is told in stark fashion, where familiar everyday interiors—classrooms, dorm rooms, airports—seem strange and "other," often dimly lit, with lots of windows showing no life beyond, almost like the interiors have no real substance. Rose Plays Julie knows in its bones, and revels in the fact, that there is nothing so scrumptious, so heavenly, as a dish gone icy, icy cold. But don’t expect an idyllic reunion from this dark, twisted revenge thriller, as Rose uncovers disturbing truths on her journey. But Rose Plays Julie is a psychological thriller where pathos, suspense and the silent confusion of our heroine compete for primacy. She gives her name as "Julie.". Rose Plays Julie is an emotionally cathartic thriller that is good for pretty much any adoptee to see. Just as Ellen plays a character for her day job, Rose “plays” Julie — costumed with a bobbed wig — when she eventually tracks down her biological father, Peter (Aidan Gillen), a famed archaeologist who repeats his pattern of sexual abuse with Rose. The sound is extremely controlled, with silence dominating. That isn't a good thing. Amid the lush greenery of the setting, the atmosphere is perpetually bone-chilling — complete with an ominously high-pitched score — making the film seem distant and difficult to fully embrace. There is a fine line to be drawn between overbearing self-seriousness and exposed emotional affect. , almost as if the interiors had no real substance. It contemplates the double lives of women through the ideas of outer success and inner anguish, as well as the trope of the naïve girl versus the seductive avenger. ", When Ellen and Rose finally come face to face for the first time, Ellen, in great distress, tells Rose the circumstances of her pregnancy, as well as why she felt she had to give Rose/Julie away. ‘Rose Plays Julie’ Review: An Eerie Thriller With Mirrored Traumas, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/movies/rose-plays-julie-review.html, Most Read: 5 International Movies to Stream, Rose (Ann Skelly) goes to London to meet her birth mother in “Rose Plays Julie.”. Skelly is both beautifully expressive—her eyes and voice drawing you in—and very hard to read. “Rose Plays Julie,” written and directed by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, frames its sexual trauma as an intergenerational one. Rose Plays Julie ultimately relies too heavily on well-worn revenge tropes at the expense of any substantive study of identity. Maybe Julie was who she was supposed to be all along. Rose Plays JulieNot rated. But different." ROSE PLAYS JULIE knowingly plays with our expectations as much as it plays with genres. She's like Sleeping Beauty coming out of a trance. Nightstream Review: Rose Plays Julie is a Powerful Drama That Examines a Minefield of Emotions Jared Mobarak October 11, 2020 Get ready for a tense ride because writers/directors Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s Rose Plays Julie never relinquishes its sense of brooding until the very last frame’s welcome exhale of relief. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Father and daughter are already magnets. With its lush art house production aesthetic, unsettling exploration of identity and double entendre dialogue, “Rose Plays Julie” unfurls with an elegant sense of dread. "Rose Plays Julie" is a simple tale, really, but the emotions are enormous and fraught, calling up comparisons to Aeschylus' The Oresteia, or, Sophocles' Electra, where Electra, Agamemnon, and Clytemnestra, bound together by family ties, march towards horrible climaxes of action and counter-reaction, following the demands of fate and destiny. Rose Plays Julie (2021) movie review March 21, 2021 Hollywood No Comments This modern and powerful tale is told in a stark fashion, where familiar everyday interiors – classrooms, dormitories, airports – seem strange and ‘other’, often dimly lit, with many windows showing no life beyond. Like many of the films of Hitchcock, and even more so his arch-imitator Brian de Palma, Rose Plays Julie is a film largely comprised around the acts of looking and following. Her disguise is not necessary, since Peter does not know her name or that she even exists. When father and daughter finally come face to face, you don't know which one is in more danger. Ann Skelly gives off strong Jodie Comer vibes in the lead role as she seeks the truth and maybe a bit of revenge. In her dorm room, Rose keeps a photograph of herself standing at the end of a jetty jutting out into the ocean. The tale, crafted by co-writers/directors Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, taps into primal urges—for love, revenge, knowledge—and these urges give "Rose Plays Julie" a mythic quality, like a story told since antiquity, or a fable designed to express truths about the human condition. Sexual violence and adoption bracket the life of a young woman seeking a family connection and finding a #MeToo legacy instead. Her actions present a thought-provoking interplay of pain and self-preservation. Whereas some of their earlier work, however intriguing, sometimes looked like melting away into the mist, this film grabs you by … "Rose Plays Julie" doesn't have a "sweet" bone in its body: the emotions are too painful and contradictory to be called "sweet." Gillen masterfully flows between charming, reckless, broken, predatory, pathetic, and frightening. Don't let the one sentence plot summary fool you, Rose Plays Julie defies genres to create an unforgettable and relevant story. Why she didn't just write Ellen an email requesting they meet for coffee is one of Rose's mysteries: Rose is led deeper and deeper into the fairy tale forest (the first conversation with her mother takes place at the edge of a forest), as she is pulled towards Peter by an irresistible force. WHAM! She goes to London to find her birth mother, Ellen (Orla Brady), a television actress who wants no reminders of the circumstances surrounding Julie’s birth and no connection with her daughter. Skelly is both beautifully expressive—her eyes and voice drawing you in—and very hard to read. His masks are so multiple you wonder he can keep track of them. "Rose Plays Julie" is very controlled in its style: this control reaps huge rewards. This is not a realistic world. Rose Plays Julie is a masterclass in film making, to say the least. When she was adopted as a child, she was given the name Rose, but "Julie" appears on her birth certificate. A quiet veterinary student in Dublin, Rose (Ann Skelly), has recently discovered that she was adopted and that her original name was Julie. Even with its unusual approach to exacting delayed revenge, “Rose Plays Julie” remains just a little too cold and calculating. Now she must track him down, for very different reasons. Whatever Rose's endgame is, it's a little bit more ambiguous than just "getting in touch. Instead it settles down and becomes an artsy rape-revenge film. He is tricky; you can't nail him down. If Rose Plays Julie stumbles anywhere, it’s in not giving Rose any real dimension or background before she starts the search for her birth parents. The film wouldn't work if Peter was played as a one-note villain. Rose Plays Julie is about masks, which considering what civilization is going through is highly appropriate. Maybe if she tries to "enter" Julie, she will be closer to the life she should have lived. Stephen McKeon’s very dramatic score, complete with creepy-sounding sopranos, is used sparingly, and to great effect. But Rose Plays Julie has much more dramatic solidity and punch. Start to finish, this is damned unsettling. In her first glimpses of her parents, the film puts the audience in the POV of Rose, her mother appearing angelic if … ROSE PLAYS JULIE – Review by Susan Wloszczyna March 10, 2021 March 14, 2021 Susan Wloszczyna aiden gillen, ann skelly, christine malloy, irish films, joe lawler, motw, movie pf the week, orla brady, Rose Plays Julie. He hides in plain sight. Peter's famous archaeology text is called Below the Surface (the irony of the title so sharp it tips over into cynicism). Rose Plays Julie archaeologically digs through human suffering, one fragment at a time, bringing its characters’ traumas out to see the light. Beneath the eerily calm surfaces of Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s terrific “Rose Plays Julie,” a transgressive story bides its time. (There is one moment where she screams something and the sound drops out. There's something very eerie about "Rose Plays Julie," and the eeriness is not just a style choice to create a mood. 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