Julie & Julia

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Starring: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina
Director: Nora Ephron
Certificate: 12
Year: 2009

 

In Short: A good look at the roots of cook Julia Child and her biggest fan Julie Powell, it is compelling and sweet, funny and serious in just the right places and inspires you to get into that kitchen and somehow managing to remain completely un-sexist.

In Full: I watched Julie & Julia having never heard of either of them or read their books before so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised by the tale of both women and (though I have little to go on) thought both Adams and Streep gave wonderful portrayals of their characters.

The flashes between Julia and Julie were executed very well and there was, thankfully, no confusion which I find often happens when people swap between one time and the other, especially when they are closely interlinked.

I have never been fond of Amy Adams, though I could not tell you why, however I really liked her in this role and empathised with her when things didn’t go according to plan, I even found myself shouting at the tv when she overslept.

Meryl Streep, on the other hand, has always been one of my favourite actors and I particularly enjoyed the plumy accent she used for Julia, when watching her cooking show she reminded me of a 50s Nigella Lawson. She manages to create a very likeable character who is incredibly funny but you don’t laugh at her, you laugh at the situation.

The sets and costumes work in the movies favour as well as the script and the soundtrack which, while not very memorable, does not distract from the scene, which some scores definitely do. Both Tucci and Messina gave strong performances as the doting husbands, not to mention a variety of recognisable faces in much more minor, but still well-acted, roles.

The only real problem I had with this movie, and it is a rather little thing, was that I got the sense of a build-up to when the two would finally meet and there would be some sort of conflict or armistice between the characters, as well as a look at a 90 yr old Meryl Streep. If this is what you hoped to see you will be disappointed. However, despite giving a slight false impression, it is easy to look past this small flaw and enjoy the rest of the movie.

See This Movie If You Liked: Ratatouille (Brad Bird & Jan Pinkava, 2007), Evening (Lajos Koltai, 2007), The Cat’s Meow (Peter Bogdanovich, 2001)