Julie & Julia (2009)

This film could basically have been broken up into two separate movies, one of which might have been good enough to stand by itself. The second line of the story would probably not have been worth watching by itself, but as a couple, this duet works pretty well. Julie & Julia parallels the story of Julie Powell's 2002 adventure of cooking her way through Julia Child's ground-breaking cookbook with the winding road that the world's first celebrity chef took to become this country's most famous food author. In Julie & Julia, Julia Child is portrayed amazingly by the one person who could do her justice, Meryl Streep. The only actor in the film who is possibly more likable than her is Stanley Tucci, playing Child's extremely supportive and understanding husband. While this is not their first one screen coupling, it still amazes me what incredible chemistry exists between the two, almost as if they were meant for each other. Julia Child's life on film is so captivating that it makes the viewer, at times, wish that the producers had turned this portion of the movie into its own feature length film, and not bothered to interrupt it over and over again with the story of someone whom they've never heard. Julie Powell, the typical modern American woman, is played admirably by Amy Adams. She is grinding her way through the hardships of every day life, but is able to renew herself by cooking Julia's masterpieces and blogging about it. Keep in mind, this occurred in 2002, before everyone and his wife had a blog, so at the time it was a little more significant, but as she goes along, she becomes more popular and begins to believe in what she's doing and in herself. This half of the film is interesting, but at times, I found myself wishing that I was watching Meryl Streep instead. In fact, one of the most interesting things the director of this film accomplished was making Amy Adams quite homely, and not a little annoying, which doesn't help. That said, considering the target audience of Julie & Julia, I really enjoyed this film. However, that is not to say this movie is without its problems. There are two specific points in this film that I specifically disliked. First of all, nearing the end of Julie's journey through the cookbook, she and her husband get into a large, but not all that significant an argument. The husband walks out for the night, and the whole next day, Julie wonders whether or not her marriage is over. Keep in mind, this is the only time in the movie that there has been the slightest disagreement between the couple, and the idea that they would end their arrangement after one little fight is laughable. The other issue that I take is that towards the end, Julie gets word from Julia Child's people that the latter does not care for the former's point of view. While this may have been true in real life, I found it took a lot of the luster off of her story. All told, I really liked Julie & Julia and would recommend it to anyone who is planning on watching a film with his wife. I give Julie & Julia 3 and a half stars.