Julie and Julia

I just got back from seeing Julie and Julia, Nora Ephron's mash-up of Julie Powell's blog/book, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, and Julia Child's autobiography My Life in France. Starring Amy Adams as Julie Powell and Meryl Streep as Julia Child, the film is at least half of a good movie. You get no points for guessing correctly.

The film interweaves the two stories - Julie's modern-day tale of attempting to cook the entire ouevre of Child's seminal cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking over the course of one year, and Child's tale of her days in Paris, going to culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu, and writing her legendary cookbook. But more importantly, it tells the story of Child's relationship with her husband and muse Paul. Fortunately, this part of the movie works on all levels.

I was tempted to say cooks on all levels, but that might be a bit much.

The structure of the interspersed stories doesn't work terribly well for one main reason - I just didn't care about the modern day story. This has to be due in large part to this section of Ephron's script, which is a rather bland bit of "empowerment" that left me cold. Julie Powell comes off as a bit of a dilettante, and the reliably charming Amy Adams is as unappealing as I've ever seen her. At no point did I feel any empathy for her character, and when her husband (Chris Messina) leaves her temporarily, I saw no reason for him to return.

On the other hand, Stanley Tucci gives an amazing performance as Paul Childs. There is a sense of passion and style between the two that makes you look at Julia Child in a completely different way. Their relationship is white-hot and sexy, and the feeling of love, and lust, between the two characters is one of the more realistic portrayals I've seen of middle-aged love and passion. Meryl Streep is, as always, mesmerizing.

Everyone knows how the story ends - French Cooking becomes perhaps the most influential cookbook ever published, now in it's 49th printing, but the details and nuance of their life together is fun to watch, and at times heart-wrenching. Paul Child was a career diplomat, and his dealings with the odious Joseph McCarthy and HUAC in the late fifties would have given anyone pause. And the scene where Julia learns of her sister's pregnancy, the mix of pride, love, and regret (the Childs never had children) that swirls on Streep's face, along with Tucci's response, is wonderful.

And the food - I have to admit that Julie Powell's half of the story gets better food porn, which for those who know me is saying a bit. Watching the movie made me hungry, and made me want to cook. Which I plan to do this weekend.

So, Meryl Streep gets a big yes, Stanley Tucci gets a big yes, and sadly, Amy Adams gets a big meh...