"Julie & Julia"...Meg's Review

For those who know me well, you know that one of my passions in life is food!! I LOVE food...preparing it, eating it, learning about it, reading about it, collecting recipes - anything to do with food I love it!! :) You could call me a "Foodie" ("someone who has an ardent or refined interest in food."). I became a "foodie" the first time I laid eyes on my Holly Hobby Easy Bake Oven - since then I've know that my home was in the kitchen!! Another one of my newest passions is blogging! While I don't do it as much as I'd like, I do enjoy it!! It's a great release for me - I enjoy writing, it lets me be creative in sharing my thoughts, lessons I'm learning, fun stories about myself and my family, and just everyday life! Martha Stewart would say "it's a beautiful thing". I also enjoy reading other's blogs, and of course blogs about food. So when the movie "Julie & Julia" hit the movie screens - you can only imagine how much I wanted to see it. I SO wanted to see it...but I never did see it on the big screen. While I was excited about it - I couldn't find anyone who shared my same passion - they just didn't see how blogging about cooking could be the makings of a movie worth seeing. I on the other hand thought it made perfect sense! I decided, I'd go by myself...but time got away from me and it never happened. Watching it on DVD became my next goal (if you can have goals about watching movies!). Therefore, I made it a suggestion for a Christmas gift. I have a friend who each year at Christmas we tell the other exactly what we want - only one gift idea is shared for each of us. I kinda like it - even though it takes the surprise away...I'm guaranteed to get an item on my list. I don't share the idea with anyone else - just this friend...making sure not to duplicate! Well this year - I knew EXACTLY what to tell my friend..."JULIE & JULIA"!!! And that is exactly what I received!! :) I was so excited!! So I planned for my own personal movie night (one of my favorite hybernation activities in the Winter on Friday evenings). I picked up a pizza, put on my comfy clothes, headed for the basement with pizza and Pepsi in hand, put the movie in and assumed my usual spot on the couch. I was ready!! And my thoughts on the movie...

General Details:
Based on Two True Stories of Julia Child & Julie Powell
Meryl Streep (Julia Child)
Amy Adams (Julie Powell)
Director: Nora Ephron
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama, Romance
MPAA Rate: PG-13 (for brief strong language and some sensuality)
Runtime: 123 min.

Meg's Review:
Star Rating (out of 5) - 3.5
Overall: Cute, Funny, Lighthearted, and will leave you wanting to cook and blog


Meryl Streep - She did an excellent job portraying Julia Child. She did an amazing job sounding exactly like Julia. Even though, I'm a self proclaimed "Foodie" - I knew very little about Julia Child prior to watching the movie. So I found the movie to be rather "informing" on the life of Julia Child. I was familiar with her name (in general), her eclectic accent, and her overall unique appearance (tall and rather plain). I didn't realize she was the only women in her class at Le Cordon Bleu, that she was married to a diplomat, nor that she didn't set out to be a World Famous cook. Food was what she enjoyed and she was looking for something to fill in her time while living in France - so she took cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu in hopes of expanding her horizons, and later desiring to teach American Women how to cook french food.

Amy Adams (an actress I'm starting to enjoy) - I knew nothing about Julie Powell until this movie was released. I did research the Internet to see if her "The Julie/Julia Project" blog still existed - and it does, but has not been updated in some time (WARNING: If you review the blog there is offensive language throughout the blog). I felt I could relate to Julie Powell - for several reason...she is a Secretary, she enjoys cooking, she had emotional outbursts after she got way stressed out, she quickly got over her emotional outbursts, and she put her entire life completely into her project (i.e. she begins feeling that she is actually cooking for Julia Child, she began wearing pearls daily, because she wanted to be Julia Child). Julie Powell is a writer who had not reached the goal of being a published writer and finds herself as a Secretary for an organization involved in the rebuilding project of the World Trade Center site. She is approaching 30 and is frustrated about her current "place" in life. She loves writing and wants to start a blog, because a fellow friend has a blog - but feels she has nothing to write about...because she is not an expert on anything. She then decides that she will cook/bake her way through Julia Child's first cookbook, and write about her experiences...with a deadline of one year. (she had to set a goal, because she knew if she didn't she'd never finish the project...yet another reason I feel I could relate to Julie Powell).

Generally speaking, I enjoyed the movie...at times it was slow, but overall it was entertaining and occasionally had me laughing out loud (especially when purchasing/cooking the lobster and during her emotional outburst that lands her lying on the kitchen floor). I liked the easy transitions of similar experiences from the life of Julie to Julia and visa versa. I enjoyed the on screen reunion of Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci (as Paul Child, Julia's husband)...I loved them together in "The Devil Wears Prada". The movie didn't leave you challenged to conquer the world, cause your mind to think during the movie, nor did it have you sitting on the edge of your seat. It was a lighthearted movie depicting the lives of two women who happened to have similar interests living in different decades, and showed you how your life can inspire others. If you enjoy cooking - you will enjoy "Julie & Julia" and will want to add it to your DVD collection. I would watch it again - actually I watched it twice in 24 hours. Not because it is "Titanic" amazing, rather because I had some interruptions during my first preview - and I wanted to watch it all the way through in one sitting. If cooking isn't your "thing" - you may find the movie to be just okay (maybe even boring) and not worth watching again - and I would recommend you rent it first to see if you'd like to add it to your DVD collection. I would recommend watching it at least once - if for no other reason than to see Meryl Streep's performance in one of her best character transformations. The movie ended differently than I thought it would end (probably the most shocking part of the movie) - but I guess you can't change real life. I don't think I'll be taking on the Julie Powell challenge - but I may purchase a copy of the cookbook (to add to my cookbook collection of 100+ different books) and attempt several recipes. However, I could see me enjoying a trip to the National Museum of American History to see the Julia Child kitchen exhibit (minus the butter).

And there you have it...