Julie & Julia
2009  PG-13  COMEDY-DRAMA  2h 3min
CAST— Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina, Linda Emond
MUSIC— Alexandre Desplat  DIRECTOR— Nora Ephron  BASED ON— Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (book), by Julie Powell, My Life in France (book), by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme

     This is one of those good news/bad news deals. The good news is that we get a tantalizing peek into the life of a master chef. Bad news: the audience sees through the eyes of a distracted 21st century blogger. Julie is a bored government employee living a life of dull routine, her only outlet for stress being food. She decides to start writing a blog on cooking, following the recipes set before her by the legend herself, Julia Child. As this dull story unfolds, the viewer is treated to vignettes of Child back in the day, highlighting various stages on her road to culinary success. Her passion for food and her zest for life dominate the screen so much so that this becomes more than a film about a cookbook in the making, it becomes a loving study of a larger than life personality who cared not a whim about trans fat and cholesterol. This character study within a character study showcases storylines on two vastly different personalities yet tries to sell itself as one interlocking film. For best effect skip the Julie and head straight for the Julia.
OUR RATING— **