Review: Julie and Julia (2009)

[Jonathan Moya]

Julie and Julia
(2009)

A Movie Review
By
Jonathan Moya

3.5 Out of 5 Stars or B+

The Plot: (from IMDB.com)

Julia Child (Meryl Streep) and Julie Powell (Amy Adams) are featured
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.

The Review:

It is a shame that Julie Powell got a movie of her life made before
Julia Child.    Powell's blog, the Julie/Julia project, about the
adventures and misadventures of her trying to cook all 524 recipes in
Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" within a year is the
inspiration for Julie and Julia.  (Poor Child, she doesn't even get
top billing.)   Even though the two never met in life, Child knew of
Powell's blog but expressed bored disinterest for it.  She thought it
was gimmicky and opportunistic, but then Child never wrote
endorsements for someone else's cookbooks and rebutted all attempts by
others to make money off the Julia Child label.  She unsuccessfully
fought Santa Barbara, California rose lovers who wanted to name a
bloom in her honor.  The Julia Child Rose blossoms to a simmering
butter-gold.  Julie and Julia only cover twelve years of Child's life
(1948-1961), from her first taste of le cuisine France to the
publication of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

In Julie and Julia, Powell (played by the incandescent Amy Adams) is
crestfallen by her muse's disinterest.    But then, the simplest
cooking faux pas has her whining on the floor, coated in a fine layer
of flour and rolled in the offal of her latest botched assignment.
Adams plays Powell with her usual gentle and earnest method style. Her
candy-coated charm tries to frost over Powell's self-indulgence and
mal content.  She percolates through all the romantic comedy layers-
the breakups and make-ups- towards empowerment, the ideal marriage and
the joie de vivre that Nora Ephron (who writes and directs here) sees
as Julia Child's natural essence and lesson to the world.

Meryl Streep does the real cooking in Julie and Julia.   She
effortlessly masters Child's heart and soul.  Her Julia is the perfect
soufflé- light and airy with just the right amount of sugar and lift-
an embodiment that goes beyond the command of the Child accent and
physical style, beyond homage, to revealing real character.    Streep
handles the painful echoes of Child's ironically childless life with
poignancy that avoids the maudlin with one exception.   The last scene
has her and her mate Paul (Stanley Tucci) beaming at and holding that
beautiful little book of theirs with a little too much motherly and
paternal affection.

Stanley Tucci as Paul gives a delightful performance.    Paul and
Julia, Meryl and Tucci find perfect support in each other.   Their
onscreen marriage all comes together with perfect technique and the
right ingredients- a rare and great example of wedded bliss.

Nora Ephron's direction and screenplay bring the parallel stories into
a respectful balance that never tries to strain the gentle points that
float between them.   The two childless couples find their own perfect
space.   Julia and Paul live the classic perfect romance.  Julie and
Eric (Chris Messina applying enough patience, charm and husbandly
concern to make it gel) live their modern marriage within the
conventions of romantic comedy, suffering a little bit of the Blands
as a result.  The two stories never create a perfect whole, just a
satisfying appetizer and entrée. Sometimes that is as good as life
gets.    Julie and Julia gets a B+.

The Credits:   (From AllMovie.com)

Nora Ephron  - Director / Screenwriter / Producer Laurence Mark  -
Producer Amy Robinson  - Producer Eric Steel  - Producer Julia Child
- Book Author Julie Powell  - Book Author Alex Prud'homme  - Book
Author Stephen Goldblatt  - Cinematographer Alexandre Desplat  -
Composer (Music Score) Richard Marks  - Editor Mark Ricker  -
Production Designer Benjamin John Barraud  - Art Director Dianne
Dreyer  - Co-producer J.J. Sacha  - Associate Producer Donald J. Lee,
Jr.  - Executive Producer / Unit Production Manager Scott Rudin  -
Executive Producer Dana Stevens  - Executive Producer Susan Bode-
Tyson  - Set Decorator Ann Roth  - Costume Designer Kathleen Driscoll-
Mohler  - Casting Francine Maisler  - Casting Peter Bucossi  - Stunts
Coordinator Erica Kay  - Production Supervisor

With   Meryl Streep  - Julia Child Amy Adams  - Julie Powell Stanley
Tucci  - Paul Child Chris Messina  - Eric Powell Linda Emond  - Simone
Beck Helen Carey  - Louise Bertholle Mary Lynn Rajskub  - Sarah Jane
Lynch  - Dorothy McWilliams Joan Juliet Buck  - Madame Brassart
Crystsal Noelle  - Ernestine George Bartenieff  - Chef Max Bugnard
Vanessa Ferlito  - Cassie Casey Wilson  - Regina Jillian Bach  -
Annabelle Andrew Garman  - John O'Brien Michael Brian Dunn  - Ivan
Cousins Remak Ramsay  - John McWilliams Diane Kagan  - Phila
McWilliams Pamela Holden Stewart  - Instructor at Le Cordon Bleu Jeff
Brooks  - Minister Frances Sternhagen  - Irma Rombauer Brooks
Ashmanskas  - Mr. Misher Eric Sheffer Stevens  - Tim Brian Avers  -
Garth Kacie Sheik  - Annette Megan Byrne  - Woman at the Party Deborah
Rush  - Avis De Voto Helen Coxe  - Dorothy De Santillana Amanda
Hesser  - Herself Maryann Urbano  - Dinner Guest Simon Jutras  -
Dinner Guest Felicity Jones  - Dinner Guest Meg Kettell  - Simca's
Concierge Stephen Bogardus  - Scott McLeod Byron Jennings  - Houghton
Mifflin Executive Kelly Au Coin  - Houghton Mifflin Executive Richard
Bekins  - Houghton Mifflin Executive Luc Palun  - The Chestnut Vendor
Remy Roubakha  - Oyster Man Marceline Hugot  - Madame Bernheim Erin
Dilly  - Judith Jones Robert Emmet Lunney  - Bill Koshland Tom
Galantich  - American Ambassador Allyn Burrows  - Waiter in Paris Café
Julia Prud'homme  - Bridge Teacher Dimitri Radochevitch  - Fish Monger
Emmanuel Suarez  - Baker Christelle Cornil  - Baker's Wife Francoise
Lebrun  - Baker's Mother Teddy Bergman  - Cobb Salad Waiter Jean-
Pierre Becker  - Fruit Store Owner Mark Wilkins  - Butcher Jamie Hall
- Cheese Guy Francesco David  - Butcher Dianne Dreyer  - American
Housewife Mary Kay Place  - Julie's Mother [Voice]

Copyright 2009 by Jonathan Moya

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