Julie and Julia

Director: Nora Ephron
Writer: Nora Ephron
Starring: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams
Release Date: August 7, 2009
Length: 2 hours 3 minutes

These are two very different women. Both are married, both love cooking…but both live their lives in very different ways. Julia Child, cook extraordinaire, lived life like there was no tomorrow in France, in the 1950’s with her husband, and dreamed of becoming  a world-known cook – which she accomplished. And then there’s Julie Powell, living in Queens with her husband, working at a health insurance company,  in downtown Manhattan, in 2002 – just after 9/11.  From writer/director Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle) comes a rich, lovable, film about love and the love of cooking. The script was based off of two autobiographies of the two main characters. Julie(Amy Adams) doesn’t really know where her life is headed. She certainly doesn’t want to be a cubicle worker forever, but time is ticking , as she is almost 30.  While eating one of her delicious dinners, Julie’s husband, Eric (Chris Messina) encourages her to start a blog about cooking. Then Julie has an idea to cook all of her idol, Julia Child’s recipes, from her book. Her blog is called the Julie/Julia project and the goal is to complete all 524 recipes in a year. That’s Julie, but I can tell you that the much more entertaining half of this movie stars Meryl Streep putting on another impeccable performance as Julia Child. She and her husband Paul Child (Stanley Tucci) have just moved to Paris, and as much time as Julia spends in the lovely city, she still gets bored. So while her husband is working, Julia takes cooking lessons where she learns how to cook. Soon she meets Simone and Juliette, 2 cooks who are writing a cookbook about French food for American  housewives. Meryl Streep’s performance as Julia Child, was of course, nothing less then perfect. It was definitely much more interesting to see Julia Child in 50’s Paris then it was to see Julie Powell in present-day Queens, but Amy Adams made it incredibly enjoyable to watch.  The film is a bit long for a comedy like this(about two hours), but it does not drag once, and is certainly never a bore. Julie and Julia is truly delectable.