Comments on: Julie & Julia

By: E. M. Bristol

E. M. Bristol — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:13:48 +0000

This movie is so cute (at least to me) that you want to pinch its cheeks and tell it how much it’s grown. While most movies are based on one true story, here we get two. Amy Adams plays Julie, a cubicle drone and cooking enthusiast, who has recently moved to a cramped apartment with her husband and cat. (Unlike so many movie dwellings, the apartment actually looks believable; most movie people regardless of income seem to live in palatial penthouses. ) To give her life more direction, she decides to write a blog in which she’ll detail her adventure cooking recipes from Julia Child’s cookbook within a year’s deadline.

Running parallel to her story is that of Julia Child (Meryl Streep) and her evolution as a famous cook and cookbook author; this takes place mostly in France in the fifties, but the transitions between the two stories are smooth. While Julie believes that her idol has always been poised and successful, the viewer sees that Julia’s life had plenty of ups and downs – for instance, her cookbook went through several publishing houses and revisions before finding its place.

This one of the few movies I’ve seen lately that does not seem to be congratulating itself on how witty the dialogue is; nor does it try to cram in as many montages as possible, as shorthaand for character development. One warning: there are a lot of scrumptious closeups of the recipes, so bring extra jujubes.

Rating: 5 / 5

By: C. Hurwitz

C. Hurwitz — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:04:09 +0000

The movie was not bad and Stanley Tucci and Meryl Streep were very good. However the Julie part should have been cut out as it reminds me of When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle in the kitchen. A note–I’ve seen a movie where the boom microphone is visible in so many scenes–sloppy editing.
Rating: 3 / 5

By: Valerie Atkinson Brown

Valerie Atkinson Brown — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:04:07 +0000

A change of plans kept me from seeing Julie and Julia on its release date. But luckily I saw it on it’s second day out. Wow! It is the best movie – by far – that I have seen in quite some time. Everything about the story was woven together so well. And unlike some movies that have casting problems, the casting was perfect in this movie. Every character was believable and superb in their role.

I love the weaving together of the stories and the end was brilliant.

If you ever feel down or discouraged, you might want to own a copy of this movie to have handy. Watch it and you will feel a whole new view of yourself and the world. This movie did what good movies are supposed to do: you are changed once you see it.
Rating: 5 / 5

By: Ana G. Palacio

Ana G. Palacio — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:21:04 +0000

Excelente pelicula. Meryl Streep, como siempre, se lucio. Para los que vimos a Julia Child por TV, estuvo espectacular. No solo la presentacion de como una persona puede tener una influencia positiva en otra sino tambien la motivacion que uno mismo puede alcanzar siguendo un modelo. Definitivamente voy a comprar la pelicula tan pronto este disponible.
Rating: 1 / 5

By: C. R. Bates

C. R. Bates — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:16:28 +0000

This is a curious film. It is in two parts presents in an overlapping function. One is a drawn out going nowhere account of Julia Childs many years of writing a 700 page cookery book, the other is about Julie Powell (contemporary, and about whom they said, “Who?”) Julie is surprised to find she is a writer and is respected for the quality of her blog about copying Julia Childs’s recipes.

Meryl Streep plays Julia Childs as if she is continually drunk or on the happy pills. What is it? A local accent, or was JC continually drunk or on the happy pills? Does one have to be American to understand such a strange way of speaking? Are there people in the US who actually speak like that?

The film is long and seems to be going nowhere, and the impression is that someone made a film about Julia Childs, realized it was dull, drawn out, and boring, and decided to add something novel to rescue a botched effort. The fact that someone became obsessed with re-creating Julia Childs’s recipes over a whole year and write about her experiences in an internet blog seems to have been a story that has been cobbled on to salvage something from the efforts.

Julia Childs did not realize how unrealistic and unworldly she was, or how unscrupulous she was with her French collaborators, and Julie Powell was equally unworldly and did not realize that she was a good writer.

This film is a mish-mash and will baffle and certainly not please anyone who is not American

Rating: 2 / 5