“Julie and Julia” tells two similar stories from two different eras.
Meryl Streep does a dead-on Julia Child, an American living in France in 1949. She was destined to be PBS’ “The French Chief.”
Unsure what to do with her life after being a clerk during World War II, Julia decides to enroll in a prestigious and expensive cooking school. It appeared too grueling for a woman.
The other story deals with Julie Powell, played by the ever-perky Amy Adams. Julie works in a cubicle for an insurance company, taking calls about people suffering from the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.
It’s a depressing job and she often cries with her clients.
She also enjoys watching Child’s cooking show, maybe because Julia isn’t suave and perfect. She regularly ends up with food outside the bowl or on her clothes.
Then Julie gets an idea. She’s going to take Child’s book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking, 524 Recipes in 365 Days” and do just that.
She’s also going to blog about it at the same time, using her self-depricating sense of humor.
While some movies have the hero saving a person or family or town or maybe the world from tragedy, the great conflicts in this film deal with how to end the life of a lobster before cooking it or the best way to debone a duck.
As we follow Julie’s cooking trials and tribulations, we also follow a younger Julia Child as an American female learning cooking in a French male’s world.
It also follows the problems Julia has in getting her famous cookbook published.
So in many ways, Julie and Julia are the same.
They are two young, married women, dissatisfied with the way their lives have taken them and unsure of their futures.
They both have a drive and determination to forge ahead and better themselves and their lives.
They also have husbands who take a backseat to their ambitions and accomplishments. In fact, the film would have easily been made without even featuring the husbands. Julia’s is played by Chris Messina with Paul Child is played by Stanley Tucci.
There is a point in the film when the Messina character leaves his wife because of all of the stress of cooking and tasting food, but that doesn’t last too long.
Cooking proves the salvation for both women and Julie’s quirkily and fun blog helps to build her growing fan base.
It’s another fine example of a movie where people work and persevere to accomplish a goal, something all too-rare in movies. So much of the time the average movie plot deals with if and when guy beds girls or whether the main character is able to save the world or solve the crime.
Here’s a film that details just how doggone tasty food can be when it’s cooked in a lot of butter.
So check out “Julie & Julia,” just don’t do it the day before you get your cholesterol checked.
JULIE & JULIA
• Directed by Nora Ephron
• Screenplay by Ephron, book by Julie Powell
• Rated PG-13 for brief strong language and some sensuality
• Runtime: 123 minutes
• 3 stars out of 5
WEEKENDER / Entertainment
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‘Julie and Julia’ cooks up a great plot
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