Julie Johnson

I found this odd little film as a trailer on Nina's Heavenly Delights. It was well acted by Courtney Love and Lily Taylor, but for the most part just humdrum. Lily Taylor did rock some ridiculously hideous costumes, ala early 1990s and the computer science aspect also seemed to be early 90s even though the film was released in 2001. Was it a period piece or just behind the times? None of that really mattered though because the film was just about a repressed suburban housewife finally finding the courage to stand up to her dominating husband and go back to school. She was some sort of genius who wanted to finally "make something of herself." The being a lesbian stuff just sort of happened on the side as a result of her close life-long close friendship with Courtney Love. Turns out they were both thinking about being with each other since they were young. This was kind of a nice idea, not to really focus on the lesbian aspect, it just sort of came and went like any sort of heterosexual romance would with the added bonus of some tension built around them having to keep it a secret. They had to imagine affection in public and, although it was sad to have repressed love, I can't say that it wasn't hot. Love's character, of course, runs back to men because it is too hard, but Julie is changed for good. Her love life is never resolved nor his her future college but her desire to know about the world has been awakened and she is driven to learn and this resolution is enough.

In a stock story about a repressed housewife I missed initial impetus that got Julie to finally follow her dreams, but maybe we were just supposed to understand how unbearable it was because we all know being a housewife to a controlling husband sucks. But what, after like 15 years, made her finally leave? In a great parallel, the husband takes the remote away from Julie to watch sports without even seeing her in the opening sequence while later in the film Julie takes the remote away from Love to watch a science program without even seeing her. We know that there looming separation is imminent. This was a particularly effective story telling tool.