This movie tells the story of Julie Powell (Amy Adams), a cubicle worker who decides to attempt to cook her way through all of the recipes in Julia Child's first book and write a blog about it. Julie's story is interspersed with the story of Julia's beginnings in the cooking business and her life in Paris with her husband Paul (played by Stanley Tucci). This mixing of the two stories is a really well-used storytelling device, as it helps to illustrate the how different these two women actually are.
Before watching this movie, I had never heard of Julia Child, but I've since seen a video of her on the Internet, and would say from watching it that Meryl Streep's performance was absolutely perfectly in character. Stanley Tucci was also very good as Julia's husband Paul, showcasing his great versatility as an actor in a completely different role from his recent turn as murderer George Harvey in Peter Jackson's 'The Lovely Bones'.
'Julie & Julia' is a good movie, like one would expect from Nora Ephron, but with something of a surprise for Julie (and the audience) near the end when she discovers through a reporter that Julia has not only heard of what she's doing, but has an opinion on it. I had been wondering throughout the film whether the two women's paths would actually cross, and it would have an interesting end to the movie, but since it was based on a true story (or two true stories), that may have been bending the facts a bit too much.
The overall message I got from this movie was that your heroes aren't always what you build them up to be.
Just in case anyone's interested, here are some related links:
- Julie & Julia on IMDB
- and the true story behind Julia Child's reaction to Julie's blog, from the reporter who rang Julie and told her about it - Russ Parsons of the Los Angeles Times. Beware: if you haven't seen the movie, this will probably ruin the ending for you. You have been warned.
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