Photos by Jonathan Wenk/Columbia Pictures
Meryl Streep's portrayal of Julia Child is often over the top in "Julie & Julia," but so was her subject, TV's "French Chef."
An old-fashioned star vehicle of the highest order, "Julie & Julia" would be as flat as a soufflé without egg whites if not for the charm of its lead actresses, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, who are in almost every scene, although never together.
Photos by Jonathan Wenk/Columbia Pictures
Meryl Streep's portrayal of Julia Child is often over the top in "Julie & Julia," but so was her subject, TV's "French Chef."
Cutie-pie vs. crustacean: Julie Powell (Amy Adams) attempts to re-create another of Julia Child's recipes.
This is a movie, after all, about (a) a cook; and (b) a blogger. The drama, such as it is, revolves around the writing of a cookbook and the creation of a blog. This requires writer-director Nora Ephron to spice up some pretty bland story ingredients.
When Julie Powell (Adams) learns that she is the author of "the third most popular blog on Salon.com," for example, the news is greeted with the enthusiasm of an announcement at an all-you-can-eat buffet that the lasagna is ready. Meanwhile, TV's famous "French Chef," Julia Child (Streep), is described as "the woman who taught America to cook and to eat," a pronouncement that makes one wonder how the country ever survived to 1776, much less to today.
In other words, this movie, which jumps back and forth in time as it follows the progress of its culinary heroines as they "reinvent" themselves through food, lacks conventional drama and conflict -- and is none the worse for those absences. In fact, Ephron stumbles only when she tries to make her recipe nutritious as well as delicious; story elements involving McCarthyism and marital stress are as unnecessary as the promise of vitamins on a box of Frosted Flakes.
"Julie & Julia" was inspired primarily by a pair of autobiographical sources: "My Life in France" by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme, and "Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen," Julie Powell's book-length reworking of her 2002-2003 attempt to make every meal in Child's famous "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," the 1961 best-seller that transformed the distinctive Child into a celebrity and the star of public television's "The French Chef," which debuted in 1963.
With her warbly voice, odd enunciations and big-boned awkwardness, Child was an unusual and utterly original TV star. The film, however, deals with the prefame Child, the wife of a career diplomat (Stanley Tucci) stationed in Paris; she takes up cooking as a hobby because -- as she explains with typical humor -- she has a talent for eating. It's no surprise that Streep delivers a thoroughly entertaining impersonation that is certain to be rewarded with an Oscar nomination; why begrudge her for nibbling the scenery when she's portraying a character who spends much of her time chewing and swallowing?
Arguably more impressive is Adams, whose rapid ascent from indie supporting actress ("Junebug") to full-fledged movie star has been based entirely on talent and appeal, without the dubious boosts of offscreen celebrity romance or scandal. If the movies have a 21st century "America's Sweetheart," it's Adams; her Julie Powell is so convincingly earnest and likably insecure that we barely stop to think about the slightness of the story she inhabits, or the silliness of a plot that asks us to find suspense in a blogging deadline.
The writer of "When Harry Met Sally..." and writer-director of "Sleepless in Seattle," Ephron -- who more or less was portrayed by Streep in 1986's "Heartburn" -- gives her movie a traditional Hollywood gloss that viewers can no longer take for granted, in an era when even such commercial projects as "My Sister's Keeper" with Cameron Diaz are staged with faux-indie "realism." Ephron makes "Julie & Julia" look expensive, even though much of the action takes place in the cramped apartment above a pizzeria that Powell shares with her husband (Chris Messina). Adding to the movie-movie flavor of this cinematic equivalent of comfort food is a wonderful supporting cast of eccentrics that would have been welcome on any studio's backlot during the so-called classic era of picturemaking.
-- John Beifuss: 529-2394
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