Julie & Julia is one of three movies I saw in August that I have yet to write about, and they're all conveniently being released on DVD over the course of three weeks beginning today. So if you want a movie that will make you feel good and feel hungry, add this one to your netflix queue.
Julie and Julia follows two parallel stories: in the past, Julia Child (Meryl Streep) works to write and publish her famous cookbook while living in Paris with her husband (Stanley Tucci), and in the present, Julie Powell (Amy Adams) sets out to blog her experience cooking every recipe in said famous cookbook over the course of a year.
Most reviews at the time said something to the effect of "the Meryl Streep sections are amazing because I love her, but the Amy Adams sections are a drag." I think that gives Adams too little credit. A lot of the best food scenes come from Powell's year of living deliciously, and if there's one thing this movie succeeds most in, it's food. Nora Ephron hired all sorts of food specialists to make all the food look amazing onscreen, and mission accomplished. If you aren't starving by the time the movie's done, you must have slept through it.
There's still plenty of worthwhile things to watch of the living variety as well. Meryl Streep, being Meryl Streep, manages to perfectly capture the joy and eccentricity of Julia Child, making the whole movie more fun for the energy of her performance. Stanley Tucci takes the thankless role of the supportive husband and gives it such a warmth that people are still talking about him for it. And Adams, continuing her string of cute and likable roles, takes the less exciting story of a blogger living in a small apartment and holds her own.
By the end of the movie, you'll probably want to get Julia Child's book and make some boeuf bourguignon. And even if you never do, it's nice to have a movie to get people excited to cook again. Or at least eat.
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