Julie & Julia - Nora Ephron

Ah the delights of dating. Normally I would never go see a movie like this in theaters unless I was with someone who really wanted to go, but after doing some carpet cleaning Lindsay and I set out to do a double feature while the carpet dried. The first of movies was Julie & Julia mostly on Lindsay's account. I didn't really protest seeing that I like to combine an action movie with something a little more fluffy when doing a double feature and because Meryl Streep is almost always superlative. And in this way especially, Julie & Julia did not let me down.

For those that are unaware, Julie & Julia is a film that combines the stories of Julie Powell and Julia Child. As many know, Julia Child is famous for bringing french cooking to American kitchens with her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her TV program The French Chef as well for having ridiculous mannerisms and speech patterns. Here she is discussing omelettes for those who uninitiated with her work. On the other side, Julie Powell is a modern author that got her start by attempting to cook every one of the 500+ recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year, and blogging about it. She is pretty famous for being one of the first people to turn blogging into a successful writing career, having turned the project into a published book. I have some problems with her but we'll discuss these as we go along.

One thing you should be aware of before you see this film (if you plan on doing so) is that it was directed by Nora Ephron. What should this mean to you? Well if you're like most people this name won't mean much to you, but the names When Harry Met Sally..., Sleepless in Seattle, and You've Got Mail might. In the vein of her other movies Julie & Julia has its roots in the chick flick genre. Now many of the sections in this film don't feel like a chick flick at all (most all of the Julia Child scenes) but there are many sections of the film that feel like they are ripped from one of Ephron's other movies. Julie Powell has a loving husband, but as she becomes self-obsessed with her blog their relationship starts deteriorating and they begin to have fights seemingly rooted in nothing. This gives her the chance to look puffy eyed at the camera and wonder if her life will ever be right again. Of course they get back together because he is the most wonderful man in the world and she doesn't deserve him. There is a strange amount of husband adulation in this film that I don't really want to get into beyond mentioning it.

Another classic motif of chick flicks is the gratuitous amount of sex scenes (both for Julie and Julia) in this movie. Now this movie is only rated PG-13 so there obviously aren't any sex scenes but you know what I'm talking about. The husband comes home and whisks the young lady off her feet and carries her into the bedroom. You barely see any kissing and then the scene cuts to them lying around after the fact. I think this idea of 'romantic sex' that is never accompanied by the actual act is a pretty big problem. It gives the impression to many young girls that sex is always romantic and perfect and doesn't prepare them for what's really going on. I think movies and scenes like this contribute the problems and differences that men and women have when they think about sex seeing that they go in expecting drastically different things. This is mostly from girls having learned about sex from romcoms and boys having learned about it from porn scenes.

Anyway I digress, the whole movie is not a chick flick and in fact this is half of a fantastic movie. Now I don't claim to be original here in that most everyone who has seen this movie feels the same way. Not only does Meryl Streep nail the role of Julia Child, but there is more than enough material here to make an entire movie. Julia Child is an interesting enough person that a film about her self-discovery through cooking and her quest to bring french cooking to the American home could easily fill a feature film. Streep's scenes in Paris and in the kitchen are lively, funny and entertaining. I would easily watch a 90 minute biopic about Julia Child if she were portrayed by Meryl Streep and this is a big problem for the film. Every time the movie cuts to an elongated scene about Julie Powell I was left wondering when the film would return to the better half. I ended up wondering when the movie would switch back, and then when it would end. The movie clocks in at over 2 hours, and even for two stories this a little long for me for this type of film.

An interesting aspect of this story is that apparently the real life Julia Child did not approve of Julie Powell's quest. Now this was mentioned in the film but then dropped immediately and never discussed. I was unsatisfied with the way the film dropped this and I had to know why, so I looked around on the internet and found this article in which the second half discusses the subject. Apparently Julia Child didn't think Julie Powell was a serious chef and thought she was doing this for a 'stunt'. In addition, the real Julie Powell is supposedly much more abrasive than the one in the film. For example she threw around f-bombs regularly on the blog and even later groaned about the 9/11 victims she had contact with for her job in her book. Now Julia Child was 90 years old and possibly on her death bed. She probably had no idea what a 'blog' was in 2003 and was not really with it anymore. But I think it's a little silly for the film to bring this up, and thus question our belief in the main character, and then not really discuss the reasons why Julie Powell's hero so disapproved of her.

So should you see this movie? Well if you like chick flicks I'm sure you'd love it. And if you are either a Meryl Streep fan, Julia Child fan, or a self proclaimed 'foodie' who wants to 'oooo' at some delicious looking food on the big screen, you will probably like the movie. However if you are none of these things I would suggest you stay away from Julie & Julia seeing that I only think it has something to offer the above mentioned groups.

Bon Apetit!