Movie Review: Julie & Julia (2009)

I remember catching a trailer for Nora Ephron's "Julie & Julia" a little over a month ago, and was surprisingly engaged by it--at least at first. Never a fan of the Hollywood system, in which essentially the same mindless movies are churned out every week, and play to mindless audiences who like every fact presented on a silver platter, very few "big-budgeted" pictures catch my eye. But this was different. Julia Child is certainly a fascinating person, if for no other reason than her bizarre (and instantly recognizable) voice, or the obvious love (or complete obsession) she had for cooking. She has spawned dozens of followers (just flip on Food Network in the morning to see a few), but no one has ever matched her absolutely winning mix of nearly endless food knowledge, blended with a certain kind of outright zaniness that only a woman of her age could provide (she was fifty-one when her first cooking show, "The French Chef", debuted on television).

Yet then the trailer proceeded to throw in another "twist"...another woman named Julie that was apparently so inspired by the recipes of Julia Child that she decided to make every recipe in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" within a one-year time frame, and then write a blog about the creation of each completed dish. I went from utter excitement to huge disappointment: Why was this Julie character necessary? It's certainly not as if Mrs. Child herself couldn't carry an entire movie on the weight of her own shoulders, and it's not as if a definitive movie has already been made about her. I was baffled and dumbfounded. But when I ended up with tickets to an advanced screening, I nevertheless decided to give it a shot. After all, I knew my wife would like it, if nothing else.

After feeling unsatisfied with life shortly after moving to Queens, New York with her husband, and to escape the drudgery of her dead-end day job as a secretary, Julie Powell (Amy Adams) decides that she's going to undergo the aforementioned task, and blog about her experiences. As we all know will happen, her readership gradually increases, as she defies the odds and becomes one of the most-read bloggers on Salon.com. Meanwhile, the film cuts back and forth between Julie's story, and the story of how Julia Child (Meryl Streep) came to be co-author of the book that would prove to be such an inspiration to Mrs. Powell.

As I was admittedly expecting, I was drawn in to Julia Child's sequences. Meryl Streep, an actress who I couldn't care less about one way or the other, turns in a phenomenal performance as the cook who would prove that cooking at home didn't have to be expensive, or hard labor. Details of her life in France (first Paris, which she adored, then Marseilles) are lovingly captured, as is the marriage to her husband Paul, and the ups-and-downs of her life as her cookbook (which she co-authored with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle) is rejected by publisher Houghton-Mifflin for being "too long". Even though we know how it will end up, director Nora Ephron does a great job of capturing the time, and the woman herself, and the results are remarkable.

My attention drifted, however, once it focused back on Julie Powell. Only in America could such a half-witted, completely unnecessary idea take off and result in a major motion picture event. Her sequences are the stuff that typical Hollywood is made of; the sudden rise and success of someone who doesn't really deserve it, all for the sake of a "feel-good" movie. There's the obligatory husband, who's supportive of her idea at first, but quickly gets frustrated when it starts consuming her life. I don't blame him. Mrs. Powell is so focused on her task that she seems to be obsessed, and the results are more annoying than anything else. No scene can ever end without her mentioning the name "Julia" at some point within it. Even the obligatory fight, in which the husband gets disgusted and leaves, seems tacked on just because such a scene is pretty much required to be in any Hollywood movie about love, just so they can come back and have a tearful, crowd-pleasing reunion.

Despite that big flaw, however, I would surprisingly recommend a viewing of "Julie & Julia", but only for the sequences involving the latter. And I would probably wait for the DVD. As stated before, Streep's personification of Mrs. Child is almost pitch-perfect, and the scenes involving her life are truly heartwarming and poignant. If only they would have stuck with her story, which could no doubt handle a big-screen adaptation all by itself, we might be looking at a truly great movie. Instead, it's a typical exercise in mediocrity and familiarity as only Hollywood can provide. If you enjoy such a thing, then by all means, this will not disappoint. But for those that like a little thought with their features, you will probably need to look elsewhere.

Rating: **1/2 (out of four)