Julie & Julia cooks up a great movie, but leaves a nasty aftertaste.
Julie & Julia is based on the stories of two women in different times and different places with eerily similar lives. Both women have supportive and saint-like husbands and find release from their otherwise humdrum lives through cooking. To emphasize the similarities between the lives of the two women, the audience is given alternating clips from each woman’s life.
The movie revolves around an unrequited connection between Julie Powell (Amy Adams, Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day) and the world-famous chef, Julia Child (Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada). Julie, on a suggestion from her husband, Eric (Chris Messina, Made of Honor), decides to cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking; 524 recipes in 365 days, with a blog entry to accompany each dish. Of course, she subjects her poor husband (who has a hyper-acidic stomach) to every scrumptious meal, which he shovels greedily into his mouth. Julie credits every success to Julia, who hasn’t a clue as to who Julie is… and why would she?
As the movie progresses, Julie’s blog becomes more and more popular, and Julie finds herself more committed to making her readers happy rather than to her husband. After a horribly disappointing and frustrating day for the Powells, the two have a monumental fight that results in Eric leaving their apartment for an entire day, which Julie spends berating herself. I admit, I may have cried a little when they got back together, being the sap that I am, but the scene was hardly anything special. It was a poorly scripted cliché, and a sad excuse for a climax.
Meanwhile, in the past, Julia Child had been going through her first erstwhile attempts at finding a hobby, which only leads her to failure, until she realizes how much she likes eating. Julia begins a cooking class for women, but quickly transfers to a more advanced class for men. After a gigantic pile of onions to be chopped and a class that appeared to be too difficult, Julia fits right into her cooking class, even surpassing the other chefs. From there on, her talent only grows as she partners with two other women and begins to write her first cookbook over the course of several years, and then began the process of getting it published.
Flash back to Julie, who now has an article in the paper and an answering machine full of messages from publishers and journalists. The couple celebrates, but the joyous occasion is diminished by a disquieting phone call from a reporter. The audience only hears the reporter mention Julia Child being “a real pill,” before Julie answers the phone and the audience is left in a moment of confusion. Julie hangs up and informs her anxiously waiting husband that Julia Child does not like her blog. In fact, Julia Child hates Julie’s blog. Crying ensues, and I can’t help but to wonder if it’s really in character for Julia Child to hate something. Not once in the movie is Julia made out to be anything but pleasant and kind. Thus, I spent the rest of the movie waiting to find out that Julia Child had never said any such thing, or at least for her to meet Julie Powell, but it was to no avail. Julie continued her schoolgirl-esque obsession with Julia Child and Julia went on cooking with her husband by her side.
The acting, however, was fantastic and kept me enthralled the entire way through. Meryl Streep was amazing as always, and did everything in her power to embody Julia Child. Countertops were lowered, high heels were worn and camera angles were altered in order to give Streep the illusion of being as tall as Julia Child. Amy Adams was adorable and made Julie – an otherwise intolerable character – very likeable. But in the end, I can’t bring myself to recommend this movie. Sure, the acting is amazing, but that could be found in any movie starring Streep or Adams, and quite frankly isn’t worth such an inconclusive ending.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
