Julie & Julia

[Brian in Mesa]

Julie & Julia

Release Date: August 7, 2009
Studio: Columbia Pictures (Sony)
Director: Nora Ephron
Screenwriter: Nora Ephron
Genre: Comedy, Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for brief strong language and some sensuality)
Website: FeedYourInspiration.com

Starring: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina, Linda Emond

Plot Summary: Meryl Streep is Julia Child and Amy Adams is Julie Powell in writer-director Nora Ephron's adaptation of two bestselling memoirs: Powell's "Julie & Julia" and "My Life in France," by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme.

Based on two true stories, "Julie & Julia" intertwines the lives of two women who, though separated by time and space, are both at loose ends...until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible.

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[AZZenny]

Saw this last night, and it is a truly charming movie; well-written, exceptionally acted, and smoothly directed, and a foodie's joy. It is based on two true stories.

A thirty-ish woman realizes, when she and her husband move into a clunky apartment in Queens to be near his work, that her life is going nowhere -- she has a depressing, frustrating job with the government agency trying to deal with the aftermath of 9/11, all hope she had of being a writer -- being something -- fading away. But she loves to cook, and her supportive husband half-teasingly suggests she write online, do a blog about cooking.

So she decides to spend one year cooking her way through the great cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Childs and two French friends, and blogging it. (This is true, and it became one of the top early blogs on then-new Salon.com)

The movie interlaces the story of Julia Childs herself and Julie Powell, blogger. We follow Julia Childs in postwar France getting her own life going somewhere after her wartime stint in OSS. After a bit of flailing around she decides she loves to cook, and crashes the Cordon Bleu school, then gets involved writing the cookbook over the next decade, unfailingly supported by her doting husband Paul (also a former spy). This contrasts with the contemporary Julie Powell's struggles to master the complexity and challenges of high-level cooking (lobster killer....lobster killer...) , while not trashing her own marriage as she races to complete the one task she is determined not to fail at.

Movie is starring Meryl Streep, and she melts into the role of Julia Childs so flawlessly there are only a few moments here and there when you realize it isn't Julia Childs in the flesh. Stanley Tucci is just wonderful as her suave, loving husband Paul. Amy Adams is totally believable as Julie and Chris Messina is just right as her husband Eric.

The idealized Julia and Paul are nicely contrasted with the messier real-life Julie and Eric by director Nora Ephron, just as an idealized Paris contrasts very deliberately with a dirty, damaged New York -- but it is the glorious food that transcends all the realities, and links people and places across time.

Very light, very sweet and enjoyable movie. Really recommend it.

 

[Stout]

The Julia Child story was marvelously done. The modern story not so much. Amy Adams is sexy and acted the part well, but the character wasn't so well written. The husband was far more convincing.

 

[Pariah]

I just watched this. I liked it.

 

[Mulli]

I just watched this. I liked it.

I liked it.