Julie & Julia (2009)

Julie u0026 Julia: Directed by Nora Ephron. With Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina. Julia Child’s story of her start in the cooking profession is intertwined with blogger Julie Powell’s 2002 challenge to cook all the recipes in Child’s first book.

“Ms. Streepu0026#39;s performance alone makes this film worthwhile–in recent years she has really shown her great talent as a comedian (Adaptation, Devil Wears Prada, this film). She has great comic timing, and always goes just far enough for the laugh, and usually not too far that it feels staged or unnatural.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFrom the reviews I read, I was really expecting not to like the u0026quot;Julieu0026quot; half of this movie–but I was pleasantly surprised. I read both u0026quot;Julie and Juliau0026quot; and u0026quot;My Life in Franceu0026quot; earlier this summer, and I have to confess that I didnu0026#39;t love the Julie Powell book. Amy Adams really brings this character to life and makes you care about her (more so, I think than the book did). One problem with the balance in this project is that Julia Child did something really important for cooking in America, and so her story is inherently interesting. Julie Powell wrote a book. That became a movie. Add to that the fact that the heavy hitters in the film all live on the Julia side–Streep, Stanley Tucci, and a great cameo by Jane Lynch–and the deck feels fully stacked. Full credit to Amy Adams and Chris Messina, then, for making us care about the half of the film that teetered on the edge of the perfunctory.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis film is all the more remarkable in that it is so rare to see a film these days that just revels in joie-de-vivre. Iu0026#39;m sure a lot of the rough edges of Juliau0026#39;s personality are smoothed over–but some of the stressful moments are there. I just felt so much affection for Streepu0026#39;s Julia Child in this movie–and I laughed repeatedly and heartily at her antics. A fun time at the movies–which is a rarer pleasure than it should be.”