Top 8 Julia Roberts Movies Review

Overall 5.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

LauraBelle
South Elgin, IL

Boycott On Julia Roberts Officially Over

fan of 80s flicks, Movie Reviewer, a storyteller, music lover, A Big Giant Sap, a believer of fate

Pros

Romantic Comedies, Dramas, Surprising Warmth

DEC

2008

Top 8 Julia Roberts Movies —

I was kind of a come-lately Julia Roberts fan, for reasons I never really even understood. Because of that, I missed out on seeing Pretty Woman when it was released back in 1990. The problem with trying to avoid these movies was that the majority of them were romantic comedies, always a genre that I enjoy. I finally threw down the gauntlet with My Best Friend's Wedding, and by the time I was done watching the movie, I had become a Julia Roberts fan, finding a warmth I never expected. Having now gone back and watched Pretty Woman, I figured there was no time like the present to make a list of the movies of hers that I like the most.

1. Runaway Bride. After trying on My Best Friend's Wedding and finding it to be everything I'd hoped for and more, I watched this one and was completely taken in. Being one of the only few souls out there that hadn't seen Pretty Woman yet, I didn't have a prior reference of Roberts working together with Richard Gere. I had to admit, though, that the two of them just fit well together. Roberts' character can't find her way to any lasting commitment, always ditching the ceremony at the last minute. Gere starts hanging around her to write a story about her, but ends up falling in love just like all the other men. He, and us viewers, were really shocked when she left him at the altar too.

2. My Best Friend's Wedding. Again, this is the one that started it all for me. Roberts plays a woman who is best friends with Dermot Mulroney. He's engaged to Cameron Diaz, and throughout the film, Roberts has to come to terms with the fact that she's in love with Mulroney. Interestingly, the movie doesn't end the way you would think it would, yet still somehow leaves us with that familiar content feeling we're left with at the end of a romantic comedy. It was watching this movie that had me seeing that Roberts wasn't only a good actress, but also has a way of becoming so warm and real. It made me wonder why I had spent all those years avoidng her films. My Best Friend's Wedding also has an awesome soundtrack. So does Runaway Bride, come to think of it.

3. Pretty Woman. I did have a hard time at points seeing Roberts as a prostitute; however, I do wonder if I had seen her in this before I saw all the other films if it wouldn't have seemed like so much of a stretch to me. She plays a Hollywood call girl that finds her way in with millionaire Richard Gere at first for $100 an hour, then $300 a night, then $3000 for the week. It's not just that they fall in love with each other, but they both become changed people throughout seeing life from the slightly different perspective of the other. Jason Alexander plays a completely different character here than George. Instead of being a lovable loser, he's just a flat-out jerk.

4. America's Sweethearts. If you would have told me you were going to film a love story with Roberts and John Cusack, I don't know if I could have supported it. Having said that, Julia Roberts is also hard to believe as a previously fat, shy woman, similar to her being a prostitute. Regardless, there was a part of the dry, dark humor of Cusack's that really worked with the warmth that seems to come out of Roberts so easily. All of this seemed to play expertly off the bitchiness of Catherine Zeta-Jones' character.

5. Stepmom. While I tend to like Roberts romantic comedies more than her dramas, this one seems to be kind of caught up in between the two genres. She plays the new woman in Ed Harris' life, being that he has now discarded his first wife, Susan Sarandon. Roberts will become the new stepmom. Complicating matters, Sarandon is also terminally ill with cancer and doesn't want to admit that Roberts will be permanently replacing her not just as wife, but as mom as well. The ending is always good for a good cry.

6. Steel Magnolias. I saw this movie a long time ago, way before I had ended my boycott on Roberts. I saw it despite the fact she was in there. I didn't notice her acting talent or her warmth while I was watching this, but I think that's because there were just so many other good actresses in the movie that it was hard for a new ingenue to stand out. Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, and Olympia Dukakis just seemed to take over the whole film, yet in a really good way.

7. Erin Brockovich. This is the only drama that makes my list. Somehow Roberts being a stressed out single mom didn't seem as much of a stretch as the fat, shy woman and the prostitute. Some of the wardrobe she wears here might be taken from her prostituting wardrobe from Pretty Woman, though, come to think of it. She's a legal secretary that takes over a case against a polluting power company. Because she can relate so easily to the people that live in the area of the pollution, it helps her do things that none of the lawyers or investigators could do to get this solved.

8. Notting Hill. It's kind of like a marriage made in heaven, with Hugh Grant, the undisputed king of romantic comedies and Roberts. She plays a very famous actress who is looking to hide out, and he plays a shy, bookstore owner who allows her to hide out at his place as they begin a secret affair. They don't end up fooling anyone, though, as the press is on his doorstep wanting a piece of her and to see who she's shacking up with.