This movie is a mashup of Julie Powell's blog and book by the same name and Julia Child's book 'My Life in France'. Written by directed by Nora Ephron, the movie is mostly annoying - or at least half annoying - with an annoying lead character and a twee storyline.
In the movie, Julie Powell, a writer in New York who works for the some post-September 11 government aid organization, has reached a low point in her professional life. She has a bunch of horrible, unloving friends who seem to be more successful than she is. She has a wonderful husband, who she seems to treat like crap, and they move to Astoria to a nice apartment - which she thinks is totally terrible (for the location and the space).
To turn her life around she starts cooking and blogging about every recipe from Julia Child's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her blog becomes a sensation and she gains some feeling of self-worth or something.
All along the way, there is a parallel with Julia Child in Paris where she learns to cook and writes her cookbook.
Meryl Streep is very funny as Child, although her performance is very much in the realm of imitation rather than interpretation. Add this to the long list of funny voices in Meryl's quiver. Still, she's very likable and not painful to watch.
Amy Adams, on the other hand, is very annoying and whiny and annoying to watch. It's actually hard to say if this is the writing or her performance (I do normally like her). The character is an ungrateful girl and doesn't seem to have anything to offer. It's never clear why she has to begin the project other than to have something to keep her mind off what she considers her terrible life - which isn't that terrible at all. Her husband is supportive throughout and she seems totally self-absorbed and totally uninterested in him or the nice things he says. She constantly bitches about living in Queens - as if Astoria was three hours away from Manhattan (it's not - it's more like 10-15 minutes from Midtown - much closer than I am actually). (The whole Astoria thing, I think is much closer to a status thing - that she's upset because it's not cool to live in an outer borough - let alone Queens. This is stupid and unrealistic and baseless and hateful.)
The Julia parts in Paris are mostly delightful and light and nice. If the movie was just about Julia Child in Paris, it would have been a nice movie, probably.
Julie does finish her cooking project, but never really seems to grow or learn anything. It wouldn't be crazy to think (in an alternate universe) that over the course of the process of cooking the whole book and working so closely with a woman (Child) who she sees (and we see) as a saint Julie would become a better person and rise above her hateful, commercial-obsessed friends. But no - she is in the end as she was at the beginning - a dumb girl.
Probably the most frustrating thing for me about this movie is that is could so easily be a great food movie like Babette's Feast or Big Night or Like Water for Chocolate where you walk out of the theater salivating and hungry for great stuff to eat. Instead we're shown only very limited food-stuff and the cooking and eating seems to be background. Throughout the film, Julie is haunted by the fact that the last dish she has to make is some de-boned duck with some ground meat stuffed inside. This sounds great and looks great for the brief seconds we see her preparing this on screen - but it would be wonderful to see more if it. I would love to see the finished product and imagine what it tastes like. I don't understand why we don't get this chance. It's a tragic decision by Ephron.
Stars: 1 of 4
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I had almost the same reaction to the film. But I failed to notice the lack of savory food moments -- the mouth-watering glimpses of meals that make you rush out of the theater and start cooking (or in my case, go to a restaurant). It is a very odd missing element given Ephron's love of food. Curious.
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