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Film / Julie and Jack

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Julie and Jack is a 2003 independent romantic drama film, the directorial debut of James Nguyen, who would later write and direct the infamous Birdemic.

Jack is in a dead-end job as a chip salesman, who joins an online dating site, at the insistence of his best friend Mark. He ends up meeting a mysterious woman named Julie Romanov. After a few months of dating, Jack soon realizes he really doesn't know much about Julie, but asking her about her past ends up pushing her away and breaking off contact. Jack then tracks down her old friends, and eventually her parents, only to learn some shocking secrets about his "girlfriend".

Incidentally, the fact that Tippi Hedren appears in this film allowed Nguyen to later feature archival footage of her from this into Birdemic (which is a Whole-Plot Reference to The Birds, which Hedren starred in) and claim in promotional material that she made a Remake Cameo in it.


This film features examples of:

  • Brain Uploading: How Julie cheated death. However, unlike most examples of the trope, her pattern is degrading, so she won't last long.
  • The Cameo: Tippi Hedren as Julie's mother. Doubles as Billing Displacement as she's billed second.
  • Character Shilling: Everybody Julie knew have nothing but great things to say about her. May be a case of Never Speak Ill of the Dead.
  • Creator Cameo: James Nguyen appears briefly as one of Julie's old teachers.
  • Cyberspace: Jack has virtual dates with Julie. VR... in 2003... on a cheap laptop. Sure.
  • Dating Service Disaster: Jack can't even find a living girl to date over the Internet.
  • Dead All Along: As it turns out, Julie died of a brain tumor long before "meeting" Jack.
  • Did Not Get the Girl: Jack does not end up with Julie; not only it turns out that she has been dead for years and Jack's "meetings" with her through the internet are because her consciusness was uploaded into the cyberspace, but her pattern is degrading, so she won't last long.
  • Eiffel Tower Effect: All of Jack and Julie's dates are at The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
  • Foreshadowing: Julie goes on and on about Lady Lovelace, hinting at her true profession.
  • Hypocrite: Jack complains that Julie won't tell him anything about her, even though he hasn't told her anything about him aside from that he sells computer chips.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Julie encourages Jack to forget about her and to live his life.
  • Mistaken Identity: Jack goes up to some random woman on bench, thinking she's Julie.
  • Plot Twist: The film has two, although one is relatively minor. The minor one is that Julie and Jack only meet up in a virtual world, via the dating site. The second, more major one is that Julie is actually dead.
  • There Are No Girls on the Internet: When Jack admits he hasn't met Julie after a few cyberdates, his friend laughs and tells him she's probably a "he". For some reason, Jack insists it isn't the case, even though he has no evidence otherwise.
  • Weirdness Censor: Julie's parents don't find it that peculiar when Jack shows up at their house, asking questions about her life and death, and stating he had just spoken with her a couple days ago. Her father casually remarks, "You must have been talking to a ghost", but nothing else comes out of that.

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