If you’ve ever been to a Weight Watchers meeting one of the first things you are told is to never, ever go to the supermarket when you are hungry. The same should be said for seeing the film Julie & Julia which opens today in almost 3000 theatres (more than were estimated last week.) Julie & Julia is hands down the women’s movie of the summer and it could cause many a weight watchers member to fall off the wagon. While I enjoyed the film a lot, the parts that star Meryl Streep as Julia Child soar whereas the parts that star Amy Adams as Julie Powell the woman who became a blogger before most any of us knew what blogging was feel flat. It almost feels like Adams is in the black and white scenes of The Wizard of Oz and Streep is in the color scenes.
I don’t blame Adams. Her character Julie Powell is going through a crisis, not knowing what the hell to do with her life right after 9-11, and to top it off she worked answering questions about 9-11 issues yet had virtually no power to help anyone who called her. Everyone here in NY was depressed in 2001 and 2002. So she took up butter and Julia Child and also this new medium of communication, blogging to try and get some of her mo back. And she does.
Meryl Streep as Julia Child is in Paris with her husband Paul (played by the glorious Stanley Tucci) who is a US government civil servant. She’s also floundering and takes up cooking because she loves to eat. Through Streep we see how much Child loved life, loved Paris and loved her husband (how nice is it to see adults having a real relationship on screen?) And she discovered she loved cooking. Loved it. One of the things I admire about the film was seeing this woman discover her competency at something that she really didn’t know if she would be good at. She grows in strength through the film while Adams seems to lose strength in her journey to cook her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Also worth the price of admission is a fantastic scene with Jane Lynch playing Streep’s sister. Nora Ephron wrote the script from both Child and Powell’s books. Overall, I love the premise and she gets points for effort but she is so clearly biased in favor of Streep that at times I felt bad that when I was watching the Julie Powell parts because all I kept thinking is when will Meryl be back on screen again?
Melissa,
You echo what other reviewers have said about the movie: a) it’ll make you hungry, b) Julia parts outshine the Julie ones, and c) the story is also about marital relationship.
I love what you said about Jane Lynch–seems that nobody has anything bad to say about her work. We can’t wait until Glee starts next month so we can see her on a regular basis.
Also, I think the part about Julia’s discovery that she loved and excelled at cooking relatively later in life resonates with me. I grew up not having to, and not having any interest in, cooking, but I’m now getting more and more into it. Not just because I love eating, but I also like the meditative aspect of preparing food (and that’s why I shoo people out of the kitchen when I’m cooking).
I hope this movie is a huge hit, for everyone involved.
I hope this is a MASSIVE hit.
I hope this is a hit too. But I’ve got this comment. No offense to Amy and Ms. Hathaway or even the actress who played Streep’s daughter in Mama Mia But, and here’s a but one: why do we not think that an older woman would be interesting enough without putting in there a younger woman character to really be the “lead” of the movie? It’s like the movie can’t really straight up be about a woman over 45 as the true lead.
In this movie, most reviewers are saying, basically, they wish that they could cut the movie to just be about Julia. I hope the movie is a hit, but I wish there were a movie about just Julia with Streep. I even would’ve liked a movie about the Devil wears Prada — just with the “devil” as the lead and focus. Both movies have younger women ambivalent about ambition characters that seem whimpy and without verve compared to Streep’s character. I know that we were supposed to sympathize with Hathaway instead of the devil boss, but I thought Hathaway’s whiny boyfriend and her ambivalent nature was a drag.
I love Adams and I loved Hathaway in Brokeback Mountain, no offense to them – but can the message be here that how about a movie about a woman with zing that doesn’t have to have that prerequisite younger woman who the story is “really” about?
Thanks to your urging, I made a point to see this movie on opening night. I organized a group of 8 others to go with me as well! Hearing my mother and several of her friends laughing and mmmming made it all worth it for me.
As a younger woman I identified with the “Julie” character and her struggle to find meaningful, satisfying work. I also appreciated the depiction of both women’s relationships with their husbands. How often do we get to see such genuinely happy couples on screen? I especially liked how supportive both husbands were of their wives’ pursuits. As a writer, my husband identified with much of Julie Powell’s ups and downs about blogging and getting a book deal.
In response to Sally: Rather than viewing Amy Adams’ character as the young lead that the movie is “really about,” I saw it as proof of the lasting impact of Julia Child on women in various situations and at various ages. To me, Amy Adams’ role didn’t take away from Meryl Streep as leading lady, but rather, magnified her importance.
I think this movie works because it is a multi-generational movie. There’s something for everyone and it’s great to see so many women of different ages going together. I’m glad they used both stories. It adds to the legacy of Julia Child to show what she really meant to someone from a different era.
While everyone raves about the female leads, I’ve got to say, the men of J & J are great.
I’ve got to say that I wished the movie was about Julia only. It’s still a factor that the math that put this movie together didn’t think it would be interesting to a broad audience without having a younger woman as a focus.
A lot like Julia made people think about really good food and mastery, they bank on that film goers are uneducated about what would have been an intense brilliant movie without the “necessary” tiein to another age group. As if the kids won’t go out to eat without pizza being on the menu and a TV being on in the restaurant on a channel they like.
I tend to agree with Sally and Bette. I loved the movie, and I loved the performances, but I think it would have been even better if it had just been the story of Julia Child. I knew very little about her before seeing the film, and now that I realize what a passionate, fascinating life she led, I wish the film had shown more of her. And while Julie Powell’s story is engaging, that storyline just didn’t have the same punch as Julia’s scenes.
And Jane Lynch was fantastic! Loved that scene.
I am looking forward to seeing this film very much. Meryl Streep is fantastic, and it’ll be good to see her in another comedy (after Mama Mia). I really like Amy Adams too – I’ve seen her only in Enchanted (went to see that with my little sister), and she really got me laughing then.