Movie Review: Julie & Julia

Food metaphors seem like the cheap way to go with Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia.

So let's see if I can write this entire review without using one.

Let's start by saying that Julie & Julia is half a good movie. It attempts to meld two books instead of focusing on one of them -- not that I'm eager to see a whole film based on Julie Powell's blog memoir from which this film derives its title.

On the other hand, I absolutely would have welcomed an entire movie adapted from Julia Child's My Life in France, Child's memoir about learning French cooking. No one, of course, would have the courage to make that movie.

Why is understandable -- and exactly what's wrong with movies today. Adams and the whole blogging angle skew young -- which is the only acceptable audience for all films, it seems. Streep and Child skew old -- the kind of audience that would watch this movie on HBO, which is where a pure Child biopic would probably have wound up. Too bad no one had the courage to go that route.

Instead, Ephron tries to graft the Child and Powell memoirs together. It's not that Adams is a bad actress; she's likable, talented and cute. But every time the film shifts its focus from Adams as Powell to Streep as Child, Powell is erased from the memory. And every time the narrative returns to Powell, a bubble is burst and you wind up waiting impatiently for Child's turn to come around.

Adams' Powell is a bit of a sad sack: an underachiever who is jealous of the success of her college friends, who have hotter, more happening careers than she does. She's a middle manager in a New York government office, where she answers phone calls after 9/11 from people seeking help she is powerless to provide. She and her shmo of a husband Eric (Chris Messina) live above a Queens' pizzeria, supposedly a step up from where they've been.

To fulfill herself and to prove she actually can finish a project, she takes on the task of cooking her way through Child's famous French cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which transformed the American view of French cuisine. She'll make all 500+ recipes over the course of a year, and blog everyday about her adventures in the kitchen.

The counterpoint is Child's own story, of moving to Paris in 1949 in her early 40s, with husband Paul Child (the immaculate Stanley Tucci), a cultural attaché at the American embassy. At loose ends, Julia decides that, given her love of eating French cuisine, she wants to learn to make the food herself -- and so enrolls at the Cordon Bleu. In doing so, she fearlessly changed modern American cooking.

Streep towers as Child, a large, robust woman with a hearty chuckle, a flutey voice, a self-deprecating sense of humor and a Yankee willingness to call a spade a spade.

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Comments

[sarahmademe]

Saw it over the weekend. Reviewer was 100% correct. Julia part was great and left you hungry for an entire film on her life (forgive the pun). The Julie portion was grating, and you never really come to understand or care for her character. In all, Streep totally knocks it out of the park with Chris Messina and Stanley Tucci giving nice performances, as well.

[standard]

A weak review of a great movie--and by "great" I mean "Casablanca" great.

While Meryl Streep predictably nailed the role of Julia Child, Amy Adams had the unenviable task of performing opposite Meryl Streep--and succeeded spectacularly. While Ephron's script has a few weaknesses, the direction, cinematography, set design, costuming and acting in this film turned a very decent script into a genuine masterwork.

OF COURSE the professional reviewers are all praising Streep: she's a living legend and a national treasure playing a likable and nostalgic character. What's not to praise? However, finding no nostalgia and much unlikable about the (toned down) character of Julie Powell Ms. Ephron created is no excuse for going AWOL as a critic and taking easy but completely undeserved pock shots at Amy Adams' masterful performance because she's not Meryl Streep and her character isn't ingraciating.

For a critic to diminish Adams' work in this film is to shoot himself or herself squarely in the foot. In time, failing to recognize and acknowledge how well Adams performed here will be seen as akin to having panned Katherine Hepburn for appearing too strong or Ingrid Bergman for having an accent.

[LaraL]

Quick fact update: She moved to Paris in her mid-30's and went to cooking school when she was 37. Probably the best book on Julia Childs out there is Appetite for Life - a must read!

[esgabel]

While all of us would like to be bathed in the misty golden remembrance of Julia's Paris years, in truth we are like Julie--frustrated, easily defeated, powerless, searching for something greater. The beauty of Julie and Julia was that Julie, who had shown so much promise in college, met a challenge and completed a herculean task--all the while transforming her life one recipe, one failure. one victory at a time. She was not to change a generation -- instead she changed herself, which as we all know is no small feat, and through this blog and movie she has introduced a whole new group of people to Julia Child. At the end of the movie the audience applauded! I loved both parts of the movie and I loved both actresses. The thought of a lifeless biography on a premium cable channel rather then this wonderful, energetic, humorous movie is sad...Nora­h Ephron you got it right. Thank You for a wonderful experience!

[WillCooney]

Why do the advertisements have the listing as Meryl Streep as Julia Childs? Her name was Julia Child. Singular!

[Halsey]

I've only see the trailer..b­ut POW..ONCE again Meryl NAILS a completelyl different voice/acce­nt/manneri­sm...is she NOT the greatest actor (actress) EVER!.... and yes..I want to see it for Meryl.. I like Adams (ever since Catch me if you Can)....so­..if she provides comic relief..I can live with that..as long as not TOO much time is taken from "my" hero..Mery­l....

totally pointless post..I know..but.­.what the heck...

[tina45]

I saw this last night & was affraid that of what this reviewer talks about that the 2 parts wouldn't work together. WRONG! Though MS was amazing as Julia, I enjoyed the Julie sections as well. It made helped bring the history into the present, which is what I think the whole blog/book/movie was about. Julie was stuck, so she discovered Julia. Through cooking both Julia & Julie tranformed their lives. A day later I find myself wondering how can I transform my life?

I have to tell you that the audience was very vocal at the theater I went to - people were laughing, a couple of times I heard people say "me too" or something like that. While leaving, I looked around & everyone looked very happy. Someone I was with made the comment that she didn't see how anyone wouldn't like that movie - I agree.

[ianmcc]

I kind of had the idea about this movie that the reviewer does. It sounds like that since this is only 1/2 a movie worth watching to simply wait for it to come onto DVD and skip through all the parts with Adams in it so we can pass through the 'fluff' and maintain the enjoyment of the main course, which is Streeps performance as Julia Child.

[Winning09]

Julia Childs was interesting to my parents.

[jobecky20]

I have seen the previews and already I can tell that (for me) the portion of the movie with Streep and Tucci is the most interesting one! Streep just nails the role of Julia Child!