REVIEW: Julie & Julia (From Worcester News)

REVIEW: Julie & Julia

5:40pm Thursday 8th October 2009

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Julie and Julia film follows Julie (Amy Adams as the obsessed blogger), a girl who’s life is going nowhere after a failed career in writing left her stranded in a heart-rending job of trying to help those people who’d had their lives destroyed in one way or another by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade centres in New York.

Finding solace in cooking, she picks up on famous cook Julia Child’s book and decides to make every recipe in her famous French cookbook; whilst posting her innermost thoughts and feelings about the endeavour in blog form online.

Parallel to Julie’s story is Julia Child’s (A grandmotherly Meryl Streep), as she struggles to find her way in an alien France. Finding her feet proves easy for the extrovert Julia, and she soon finds herself writing a book, supported by her ever loving husband, introducing American women to the French cooking that she loves so much.

Having written a patchwork of romantic comedies, including the classic twee fabulousness of When Harry Met Sally (1989) and lesser contenders like Sleepless in Seattle (1989) and You’ve Got Mail (1998) (the latter two she also directed), Nora Ephron seems almost the perfect choice to pen and direct a film version of Julie Powell’s recent novel Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, as the film is in many ways a story of how Julie fell in love with not only Julia Child; but also the art of French cookery.

The film’s narrative, as chronicled in the book, is wonderfully engaging. The performances suit the film’s cheerful style, though it takes a while to empathise with Meryl Streep’s Julia: as the quirky cook’s brash attitude is initially rather irritating. The film is fine in many ways, and the performances of the main and supporting cast are charming enough; but the film is not particularly memorable. A fleeting and fun film in many ways, but Julie and Julia offers nothing beyond the subject matter of the book and runs a little slow toward the end. Undeniably enjoyable however, Julie and Julia suitably deals with the source material and remains whimsical and pleasing throughout it’s running time; if not adding anything new to make the film particularly memorable.

7/10

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