Julie & Julia (2009)
VERDICT:
7/10 Bon Appetits
It’s Meryl. How bad could it be?
Julie and Julia is the story of Julia Child’s rise from stay-at-home wife in Paris to the best thing that’s ever happened to French cuisine in the 1950s. It’s also about one woman named Julie Powell in 2002 who has this epiphany that she needs to do something with her life, so she decides to plow through all 524 of Child’s recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days, all the while documenting her journey on her runaway hit of a blog.
I think I speak on behalf of every guy out there when I say that Julie Powell is one of the best. wives. ever. Same goes for Julia Child. Ladies, it’s true what they say about the way to a man’s heart. This sucker had me salivating.
Nevertheless, this kinda movie usually isn’t my thing; well, most Nora Ephron movies usually aren’t my thing. Then again, they could remake The Banger Sisters with Meryl Streep in it and I’d be happy to see that baby on opening night. Julie and Julia is no exception.
Honestly, I don’t even have to say it because I think the six Oscar nods she gets every year for just stopping by the sets of movies she’s not even in speak louder than anything I could write here. But what the hell, I’m gonna say it anyway! Meryl RULES! She rules the SCHOOL! The School of RULING!
Going into this, I didn’t have any clue about what Julia Child looked or sounded like, but like every role she plays, Meryl makes it her own and you can’t take your eyes off her or wipe that big-ass grin off your face. It was only about five minutes ago that I finally YoutTubed Child and I’m tellin’ ya’, Julia’s a peach, but I think I like Meryl more.
Whatever, you don’t need me to tell you that she steals the show because you already know it anyway. She may very well be one of the top three actors out there today and that’s been the story for the past 20 years. Someone elect this woman to office already.
So Julia’s story is awesome and the parallel between her and Julie Powell’s literary/culinary careers works quite well, but in the end, Julie’s story doesn’t quite measure up. Even though her success story is pretty damn inspiring from a fellow blogger’s perspective, it’s just not as entertaining, nor is the uninteresting and overdramatic relationship between her and her husband. But Amy Adams is fine as Julie and she cooks up some pretty awesome feasts.
And a big shout-out to Stanley Tucci as Julia’s husband, Paul. Wasn’t until recently that I realized what a good actor this guy is thanks to his being one of the few saving graces of The Lovely Bones, but he is just impressing me left and right at the moment. Very cool guy, I need to check out more of his stuff.
Sorry that this review kind of turned into a Meryl Streep fan letter, but since Julie and Julia is all about Meryl, that’s just the way it’s gonna be. Although it sure as hell does wonders to make French food out to be as unbelievably delicious as it totally is and it’s pretty likable for both the guys and the ladies, the rest of it is only so engaging.
Here’s to hoping Cut The Crap gets the Julie Powell treatment one of these days. After all, I could rattle off my similarities to Julia Child ’til the sun comes down.
Cut The Crap Movie Reviews 
I need to see this damn movie.
(Yes, Branden, you do.)
GREAT way to start the review, Aiden. If Meryl Streep ever gave a bad performance, I didn’t see it. She can sing and dance and do drama and comedy. Surely brain surgery must be next.
Something tells me Amy Adams knew with “Julie & Julia,” just as she did with “Doubt,” that she was signing on to play second fiddle to Meryl. That’s OK, though — she does a fine job with the less interesting part. I could see one day that Adams will be as sought-after as Streep for her ability to transcend genres.
But yes, in the end it’s all about Meryl.
I thought Amy Adams stole the show in “Doubt” … her performance is much more subtle but really jumped out at me the second time I watched it.
But I’m very much alone in thinking that…
Eh. This is fine, but not a big fan and definitely was not in on the Meryl love [in terms of shitload of awards she’s collected for this film. I mean WTF]. But then I’m no big fan of hers. [Uncomfortable pause]. Yup. There’s an elephant in the room 🙂
You are treading on sacred ground, sir.
Great review. In my eyes Meryl can do no wrong and now I actually expect her to be brilliant. I thought the end was rubbish though. So she went through all that to not meet her hero and her hero hate what she was doing, it would have been a far better ending to just have Julia die without meeting her. The ending fell down but Meryl and Stan held it together as a film and I loved it. I think they work so well together and I look forward to seeing them together in more projects.
Yeah, that was too bad about Julia knocking on Julie at the end there. Easier to fault real life than fiction in that regard, though. Meryl and Stan should be in more movies together, they should be in more movies, period! The world would be a much better place with more of them to go around.