23 Oct, 2009

Rollcall: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci

Running time:123 mins

Based on two true stories, Julie & Julia is a story about passion- for food, for love and for life. In 1948, Julia Child (Meryl Streep) has just arrived in France. Her husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) is a diplomat, and his job has brought them to Paris.

Not content to sit at home all day, Julia yearns for something to occupy her time.  When her beloved Paul asks her, ‘well, what do you like to do?’ she laughs, in her famous trill, ‘I like to eat!’ And so, with enviable gusto and humour, she sets about mastering her passion.

In 2002, Julie Powell (Amy Adams) is almost 30, living in Queens, New York above a pizza shop, watching everyone around her succeed while she is stuck in a cubicle in a job that is a far cry from her dreams of being a writer.

Driven to make a change, she settles on a project: cook her way through Julia Child’s famed cookbook, all 524 recipes, in one year, and write a blog about her experiences.

Two women, and two very patient husbands, learn that with the right combination of passion, obsession, and butter, you can change your life and achieve your dreams.

Meryl Streep manages to invoke Child’s high-pitched inflection and eccentricities hilariously without turning her into a caricature. You find yourself warming to her from the offset, catching her infectious enthusiasm and passion. As Streep says of her character, ‘she loved being alive, and that’s inspirational in and of itself.’

Amy Adams manages to bring romance and emotion to the less whimsical half of the film. Set in a 900 sq ft apartment in dingy Queens, attempting to perfect boeuf bourguignon in a miniscule kitchen and typing out her frustrations. She convincingly portrays the frustrations of a modern woman trying to succeed in constrained circumstances.

Where Julia’s story takes us on a sensual lark through post-WW2 upper class Parisian society, Julie’s brings us hurtling back to the reality of struggling with armfuls of overpriced deli goods (that she just blew half her pay on) through the subway in New York.
Director Nora Ephron loves a tale of parallel lives (You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle) and the two stories entwine seamlessly. Adapted from the memoirs of both women, Julie & Julia tells a mouth-watering, joyful tale of two pioneering and much-loved women.

Why it’s worth your time:

The decadent food will have your stomach grumbling, and a stellar cast with Meryl at the helm makes this film pure joy.

By Andrea Magrath