Synopsis
Over the course of a midsummer night in Fermanagh in 1890, an unsettled daughter of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy encourages her father's valet to seduce her.
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Cast
- Jessica ChastainMiss Julie
- Colin FarrellJohn
- Samantha MortonKathleen
- Nora McMenamyLittle Miss Julie
Recommendations
- 88
Slant Magazine
The film is no tearjerker, but it makes the stage play's hidebound, soul-baring pleasures mesmerizing on screen, and without copping to reductivism. - 83
The Playlist
Ullmann’s version of Miss Julie exists in a special cinematic category; it’s toxic, it’s hypnotic, and passionately translates Strindberg’s genius instinct for enlightening the multi-layered psychological spectrums of human desire for lust and power. It’s unforgettable in every sense of the word. - 63
New York Post
Farrell feels like a weak link here, never quite as masterfully manipulative or brutish as the role calls for. - 60
New York Daily News
Liv Ullmann’s screen version of August Strindberg’s 19th-century drama is an austere, pared-down take that does one thing extremely well: It allows actors Jessica Chastain, Samantha Morton and especially Colin Farrell to shine. But this emotionally brutal work is anything but cinematically engaging. - 60
The New York Times
Aside from the change of setting, Ms. Ullmann’s version is quite orthodox. Much more convincing than Mike Figgis’s 1999 screen adaptation, starring Saffron Burrows, it is a grueling slog through a hell of torment, cruelty and suffering. - 50
The Dissolve
Ullmann’s Miss Julie is as dominated by long speeches and conversations as Strindberg’s, but those scenes don’t play as well when the two would-be lovers are sidling up to each other in close-up, practically panting. - 50
Village Voice
Despite a few dynamite scenes from Chastain, Miss Julie's cruelty is more potent than its craft. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
Both Chastain and Farrell are resourceful, intelligent actors who can be riveting together moment to moment. But the disconcerting thing about Ullmann’s blandly handsome movie is that neither of these key characters comes fully into focus.
