WILL SHE GO ON SMILING?

Julia Roberts is a superstar,but her box-office reign might be over

Julia Roberts is a superstar,but her box-office reign might be over
Julia Roberts fans have always had a theory about Julia Roberts movies. When her hair is red and long and curly,as it was in Pretty Woman and My Best Friends Wedding,shes at her most delicious. When her hair is short (Conspiracy Theory,Stepmom),shes playing someone serious,and the movie is seriously mediocre. When her hair is short and blonde and looks as though it were inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt (Charlie Wilsons War),get ready to hit the DVD eject button. In Duplicity,a new romantic spy thriller costarring Clive Owen,Roberts is poised to make her triumphant return after essentially taking five years off to raise her three children. No,the studio hasnt let us see Duplicity yet,but everything you need to know is on display in the trailer,starting with the red hair. So,too,is the wicked tongue from Erin Brockovich and,almost as important,that infectious,giddy laugh that booms so loudly it comes with its own echo.

But this may be the last time we see that Mona Lisa smile. Julia is still the biggest female star of all time; her films have grossed $2.3 billion in the United States,with 10 hits topping $100 millionremarkable for an actress who doesnt make blockbuster action films. The romantic-comedy genre where Roberts thrives (Notting Hill,Runaway Bride),though,is practically on life support. Movie stars themselves have become a dying breed (as Will Smith,Tom Cruise,George Clooney and both halves of Brangelina can tell you). Julia hasnt successfully opened a movie of her own since Americas Sweethearts in 2001. Whats worse is that no one seems to have noticed her dry spell. All of which raises a question almost too sad to say out loud: is Julia Roberts over?

Its not just that shes Hollywood ancient (shes 41). Julia foreshadowed the sunny,optimistic good times of the 90s with her infectious performance in Pretty Woman. She was beautiful,sexy,funny and sophisticated,but she was also down to earth. As the cliche goes: women wanted to be her,men wanted to be with her. Shes the Hillary of Hollywood,the actress who crashed through the $20 million-a-film glass ceiling.

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Yet shes an old-fashioned movie star. She might be sitting under one of the biggest spotlights in the world,but shes still something of a mystery. When Roberts is photographed in public,which isnt often,her face never seems to betray any emotion. Does anyone remember what her husband,Danny Moder,looks like? Even her children are virtually anonymous,which is quite a feat in our Shiloh- and Suri-crazed world. This is all great for Roberts,but it may not be great for her career now that saturation media exposure has become the one-a-day vitamin of any healthy Hollywood career.

Weve all known for years that she couldnt be Julia Roberts forever. Julia told us so herself. It came in that great dinner scene in Notting Hill,where all the guests around the table confess the saddest truths about their lives. When its JuliasAnna Scottsturn,she says wistfully,One day,not long from now,my looks will go,they will discover I cant act and I will become some sad middle-aged woman who looks a bit like someone who was famous for a while. Julia seems to have spent the last few years preparing for that day,by experimenting with un-Julia-like characters. She dabbled in the experimental drama Full Frontal,and she joined the grim ensemble of Closer. She even attempted Broadway,with her 2006 stage debut in Three Days of Rain. None of these performances really worked.

Then again,the critics were never as impressed by her as the rest of us. Roger Ebert once compared Roberts to Mary Pickford,the popular silent-screen star of the 1910s who was eventually forgotten when the talkies arrived. Yeah,but Pickford didnt have the Julia Roberts laugh. If were lucky,she wont go silent any time soon.

_RAMIN SETOODEH,Newsweek

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