For some, California is the land of milk and honey. But for others, like the floozy alcoholic Julia Harris (Tilda Swinton), California is a cesspit of every imaginable sin and evil. 

This is the California presented in Erick Zonca’s 2008 crime drama, Julia, an adaptation of John Cassavetes’ 1980 film Gloria. The film follows a gangster’s girlfriend as she transforms from a depressed drunkard to a reckless kidnapper.

Lost in a world of excessive drinking, partying and random sex, Julia staggers through life, bleeding money left and right. When her drunken haze finally lifts in the ugly mornings after, Julia finds herself void of true friends, jobless and barely able to stay afloat. But each night Julia returns to the bar and seeks solace in the bottle.

Mitch (Saul Rubinek), an ex-boyfriend, appears to be Julia’s only true friend. Despite her blatant unwillingness and outright refusal to change, Mitch drags Julia to AA meetings and even tries to set her up with a job at Reality House, an ironically named real-estate agency, in a vain attempt to get her life back on track. 

At one of her AA meetings, Julia meets her neighbor, Elena (Kate del Castillo). Although she acts anything but neighborly, Elena isn’t deterred by Julia’s prickly personality. Later on, Elena stumbles upon Julia in the midst of a hard night of drinking and the usual regrets the bottle brings. Elena drags her sorry butt home and takes care of her. 

In the morning, Elena confides in Julia about her own problems. In her own sob story, Elena reveals that her own life has been anything but simple. The hardest part is that she isn’t allowed to visit or see her young son, Tom, who lives with his wealthy grandfather. It’s a rather personal story to tell a complete stranger, but Elena has her own motivations.

Elena presents Julia with a far-fetched proposal: Kidnapping Tom from her wealthy father-in-law for a handsome ransom. Though she initially refuses, Julia is desperate, broke and unable to resist the $50,000 chunk of the money — or the opportunity to double-cross Elena for an additional payout. 

In a head-spinning whirlwind of events, Julia dons a black mask and assumes the role of kidnapper. With the little boy safely stowed away, Julia blackmails Elena’s father-in-role for $2 million. Julia, who discovers that the police know exactly where she is, gets spooked and flees, accidentally running her car headfirst into the Mexican border. There, the boy is lost into the hands of Mexican kidnappers, who, in a swift turn of events, take the money and leave the boy with Julia. 

While the plot is chaotic and overly complex, Tilda Swinton remains stylish and classy, a brilliant leading lady in this otherwise lackluster crime drama. The ethereal British actress has proved her theatrical competence in the past; Swinton epitomized the image of the icy temptress as the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia and rocked her Academy Award winning performance as Karen Crowder in Michael Clayton. 

However, Swinton takes on a whole new persona in Julia, one that is as completely uncontrollable, vulnerable and riddled with inner demons. Much of the film is so chaotic that is almost excruciating to watch. But with her striking alabaster skin and piercing green eyes, Swinton commands the screen and holds the audience captive through the complex plot and disastrous kidnapping scenario.

But Swinton clearly isn’t the only star. Aidan Gould, who plays Tom, is an excellent match to Swinton’s monstrous mess of a character. With his big doe eyes and untainted childish innocence, Gould perfectly shows Tom’s terror through the kidnapping. Despite his young age, Gould is an uncannily skilled male lead.

Although there are some disorganized splotches through the film, Zonca presents an interesting film that demands a lot of attention in the twisting and twirling plot.