Julie & Julia: The Book, The Movie, The Women

In Julie & Julia, Julie Powell feels she is a failure and wants something different, something she loves to do in and with her life. What her husband suggests is a blog-before blogs were all the rage. Julie recognizes her love is cooking, and cooking like Julia Child in particular. She hits on the idea of going through Julia Child's famous cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year and blogging about it. Along the way, she melts down, alienates her husband, and wonders what in the world she's doing. She also collects a fan base.

Julie & Julia provides a very real glimpse into the life of Julia Child, the woman who brought French cooking to America through Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julie & Julia helps us see Julia Child not just as a cook, but as a woman.

My sister-in-law invited me to share the Julie & Julia movie with her at the Kearney Nebraska Cinema 8. Though Julie & Julia was rated PG-13, I was hesitant. Yet I wanted to see how Julie & Julia the non-fiction book by a very real Julie Powell, (audiobook ISBN 978-1-60024-532-9, HachetAudio), had been translated to the screen. I was pleasantly surprised with the Julie & Julia movie. My sister-in-law and I smiled, we laughed, and, as a writer I was a tad jealous when the publishing world finally came knocking at Julie's door (or phone as the case was).

I liked how the Julie & Julia movie producers juxtapositioned the lives of both Julie and Julia, how the women discovered their talents and with determination and grit, changed their lives through not only cooking, but also writing about it. I enjoyed seeing how Julia Child and her Mastering the Art of French Cooking inspired Julie.

Both women were happily married, though their cooking, did, at times, put strains on their partners and marriages. The movie Julie & Julia does have sexual situations, but nothing more graphic than Julie's husband carrying her in her bra and panties (which we only see from the back). The sexual situations of the movie Julie & Julia, however, are between married partners.

In the movie Julie & Julia, Julia Child's character was played for realism, and with panache by Meryl Streep, while Julie Powell's character had an gritty innocence well played by Amy Adams.

Language in the movie Julie & Julia was cleaned up considerably from the non-fiction book that chronicles Julie Powell's year-long experiment with Julia Child's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Because of the language in the book, I had trouble listening to the audiobook version. The movie Julie & Julia, however, used such language much more sparingly.

Republicans, especially conservatives, in both movie and book versions of Julie & Julia are painted in less than flattering colors.

The movie Julie & Julia was an unexpected gem. Yet for those who would like the unvarnished true story, and can handle a bit of salty language and situations, the book version would nicely complement and deepen the story of the movie Julie & Julia. Well done story about two very ordinary yet special women who made a difference, by pursuing their passion.