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Since 1996 |
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
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Julie & Julia Stars: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina, Linda Emond, Helen Carey, Joan Juliet Buck and Jane Lynch Director: Nora Ephron Scriptwriters: Nora Ephron and Julie Powell based on her book Columbia Pictures Rating: PG 13 for brief strong language and some sensuality Running Length: 125 minutes Julie & Julia is a delightful film that has one special ingredient that makes it quite outstanding. Based on the non fiction book by Julie Powell this heartwarming film chronicles the lives of two women living decades apart but joined by the passion and the essence of cooking. Julia Child is of course a well known name to most everyone due to her cooking show, cookbooks, and even an SNL skit parodying this larger than life woman. Julie Powell on the other hand might be known to only a few. Yet her story makes for a fun movie when paralleled with the great Mrs. Child. It is 2002 and Julie (Amy Adams) is an aspiring writer stuck in a dead end government cubicle. When her hubby encourages her to start a blog she decides to chronicle her cooking adventures. Tackling Julia Child’s famous 1961 cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julie attempts to master over 500 recipes in 365 days. Her blog soon takes off and she is consumed not only by the wonders and joys of cooking but the notoriety and pressure that comes with writing about it. The film also bounces to the late 1940’s where we find a not yet famous Julia Child (Meryl Streep) and her adoring husband Paul. Based on Child’s memoir, My life in France, we also get to see Julia’s journey into the cooking world. Director Nora Ephron does a fabulous job of weaving the two tales into a fantastic telling of both stories. There really is no main character. Even though the film is based on the book and blog by Powell I found myself riveted and wanting to see more of Child’s side. This was mostly due to the unbelievable performance by Streep. (The special ingredient I alluded to earlier) This woman never ceases to astound me by how she can embody a character so flawlessly and come across so natural. Julia Child is no easy person to mimic. Her stature alone at six-two plus her boisterous flair for food makes her so unique. Streep relayed these qualities marvelously. Adams as well proves to be quite the solid performer. I am not sure she mimicked the real life Powell, but the essence and genuine spirit she brought to the role worked perfectly for the film. Julie & Julia is rated PG-13 for brief strong language and some sensuality. Granted this would bore most adolescent viewers to tears and contains very little to appeal to them. Still it is safe for those 12 and up. Julia Child’s story was very intriguing to me and the relationship between her and Paul (played wonderfully by Stanley Tucci) is heartwarming and beautiful. You get a glimpse into the life of Mrs. Child that solidifies her as one of TV’s most beloved people. I give it 4.5 out of 5 pats of butter. Though not for everyone, anyone who enjoys a delightful story with picture perfect acting and a feel good spirit throughout will have a joy at this one. So says Matt Mungle. Matt Mungle (8/06/09)
Review copyright 2009 Mungleshow Productions. Used by Permission.
Meryl Streep is doing it again. A chameleon of an actress, she has taken Julia Child and made it her own. Even to Child’s 6 ft. height (watch a kitchen scene for this secret) and characteristic laugh, Streep invites you into the French kitchen of chef Julia Child and the intricacies of French cooking. All made convenient for American kitchens. Amy Adams plays the contemporary writer, Julie Powell, whose blog on cooking all the recipes in Child’s first cookbook in one year, is the basis for the movie. The women never meet in person. Each has a husband who has fallen hard for his woman (Stanley Tucci for Julia and Chris Messina for Julie) and stay for the long haul. The film is a bit of French pastry and does not delve into medical problems, such as Child’s bout with breast cancer. The two stories play side by side. Child’s story has her married to Tucci and being transferred to Paris. She is hesitant about anything in France, but soon falls into a lifelong love affair with anything French, especially Paris. The time is shortly after WWII ends. Julie’s story is in contemporary times, with she and her husband living in a small New York apartment that is convenient for him and his job. She, on the other hand, works as a resource person for anything connected with the aftermath of the September 11 World Trade Center disaster, and feels lost and bored. It is when Julie decides to try her hand at serious cooking (Julia Child cooking) that her husband opens a blog for her and she tosses out the challenge to her readers that she will cook all of the recipes in Child’s cookbook in one year, de-boned duck and all. While Child finds her niche in French cooking even to besting male chef’s in a Cordon Bleu class, Amy is forging ahead with her cooking to the delight of her husband (and Julia’s and how both men remained slim is a mystery to me.) We see the pitfalls of putting together a cookbook and finding a publisher. Julie has French friends who are not ideal to work with, while Amy deals with a depressing job, self pity and a husband who is nearing the end of patience. Julia has a large kitchen in which to cook, while Amy has a small, small kitchen. You know the end, it's been made into a movie. Julie & Julia is supposed to be about cooking, and that it does show and savor, but it is also about two love affairs, years apart. We see a Julia Child whose 6 ft. height simply doesn’t matter and a husband who enjoys an afternoon delight with his wife, re the European siesta time. The only thing to mar this, is the marriage and subsequent pregnancy of Julia’s sister, also a tall woman married to a shorter man. Streep has a sterling moment when she reads the news, that is both congratulatory and heart-broken at the same time. Julia had no children. Amy’s marriage is to a man who loves to eat her cooking and puts up with the fact that Amy doesn’t complete anything. Therefore, will she complete this project? It is almost a dare when he makes a blog for her. Will she, or won’t she? That is the question. It is the ending of the film that I thought failed the story. Julie goes to a Julia Child Exhibit at the Smithsonian and poses---giddy like---in front of several photo of Child’s. This was unnecessary. The script was adapted by Nora Ephron, who also directs, and photos her stars in their kitchens without a claustrophobic effect. We get the beautiful ambience of post-war France on one hand and a bustling New York City on the other. When Child and her husband first drive to their new residence in Paris, they are in what I think is a Buick station wagon. That car is a sight to behold, as is Meryl Streep as Julia Child. Oscar nomination again? Copyright 2009 Marie Asner
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