Julie & Julia

Expectations. Hype. Academy award-worthy performances. How many films have I seen that everyone has raved about only to find them lacking and disappointing? Dozens I tell you! Last night was no exception. I was really looking forward to watching this film so when Julie & Julia arrived in the post, my friend Carolyn and I planned an evening around it. We both remembered Julia Child from our childhoods (I always thought her name had an "s" at the end, as in Julia Childs, who knew?) What's more we had both heard great things about this film. Well, 1 hour and 55 minutes later, we were looking at each other and saying "Really? REALLY? Seriously?"

Let's break it down...

Plodding Plot: The movie suffered from having no real, tangible drama. We follow Julia Child as she entered cooking school (a few chuckles watching her among the cordon bleu chefs) and the long process of the cookbook that launched her career. And we follow Julie, a mousy government employee and frustrated writer who decides to cook all of the recipes in Julia's cookbook in a year and blog about it. I agree with Nora Ephron; this seemed to be a great idea to make into a movie, but while the idea was interesting, the execution just didn't work for me. The big dramatic moment, apart from present day Julie having a meltdown over dropping a stuffed chicken is when Julia's husband is questioned by McCarthy-era henchmen, but he's cleared. So even THAT wasn't that dramatic. Yes it takes years for Mastering the Art of French Cooking to be published but that story dragged as well. I found some of the jumps and plot points confusing, maybe it had to do with the editing. Or maybe I'm just too conditioned to expecting a certain A+B=C formula in films. The two J's didn't meet in the end, in fact Julia Child apparently didn't approve of Julie's blog, what's up with that? Either way, it just felt that nothing really happened. 

Performances: Well Meryl is awesome. No surprise there. And tall! I wonder what lifts she had to wear and what false perspective tricks were at work to have her tower over others in every scene. I felt strangely detached from Julia Child and I can't quite explain why. It's not because I'm disinterested in cooking, I do enjoy watching cooking on TV. And Julia Child is a fascinating character but...well I just didn't connect to her. In one scene, Julie (not Julia) and her husband are watching Dan Akroyd as Julia Child. And watching Meryl, as great as she is, just felt like I was watching an impersonation. Amy Adams plays Julie. Funny how I can't fault her performance but I didn't really care what happened to her character either; she seemed kind of whiny. And it wasn't just me, the friend I was watching it with had the same reaction. I liked Jane Lynch as Julia's sister and also enjoyed the actors who played their husbands (more on that below).

Husbands: The men in the J's lives are probably the part I liked most. I loved Stanley Tucci as Julia's adoring husband. We learn that they didn't meet until Julia was 40 (and he was 50) while working at the American embassy in China. Their love for each other is palpable. And present day Julie's husband, a writer and the creative inspiration that prompted her to write her blog, is a mix that we viewing women love to see: he's cute, he's supportive but he stands up for himself. Gentlemen, we like you sensitive but not too sensitive, just so you know.

Cravings: We watched this film right after having had a delicious meal and thank god we had eaten! The visceral triggers of all the eating and drinking (and butter!) had my mouth watering at times, and I've been vegetarian for over 20 years! If I had watched this hungry, it may have resulted in a huge take out order. Having said that, a few of the scenes involving calves feet, boiling lobster and generally bloody protein were so disgusting that the hunger pains eased so I guess it was a mix of physical reactions now that I think about it.

I think...though there are some chuckle out loud parts, the movie was slow and I recommend you check any high (or mid) expectations at the door when you watch it and maybe it won't disappoint.

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