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Julie & Julia (2009)

Director: Nora Ephron

Time Out rating

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8 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Read an interview with Ephron here

If, as screenwriter and director Nora Ephron has done, you take two foodie memoirs, fold one into the other and add judicious amounts of sugar, the result is bound to make a viewer hungry – but for what?

Sure, there are close-ups of boeuf bourgignon and chocolate almond cake, and a lot of unfashionable drooling over butter, both in post-war Paris where Julia Child (Meryl Streep) learns French cooking and in post-9/11 Queens where Julie Powell (Amy Adams) cooks and blogs her way through Child’s book; but the food isn’t the point. Julia and Julie are both happily married women in search of something meaningful to do. Food, for them, isn’t filling: it’s fulfilment.

The larger issues of food and cooking in a woman’s life are left on the side of the plate, but the bouncing back and forth between Julie’s poky American kitchen and Julia’s gracious Parisian one can’t help but inspire comparisons. Can a Magimix and Instant Messaging really compensate for the glamour of real pearls, an authentic French cookery school and letters you can open? Worse, this Julia is largely a figment of Julie’s imagination, so her life is tiresomely close to perfect. Unlike her acolyte, Julia has no marital quarrels, no money problems, no dispiriting day job. Her career has a selfless motive – the desire to teach Americans how to cook French food – while Julie’s is all about Julie.

The result is a film that’s charming, funny – especially when Streep is on screen, broadcasting her superb impression of the tall, charismatic, high-pitched Child – but leaves you with a dissatisfaction with modern life that no culinary masterpiece can relieve.

Read an interview with Ephron here

Author: Nina Caplan 2009-09-08 10:45:42

Time Out London Issue 2038, 10-16 Sept 2009

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User reviews of this film

Masa said...

Posted on Sep 30 2009 07:13 Sorry Sheila, but i am totally thinking otherwise, Meryl Streep is absolutely amazing again and co-cast are excellent too. Her voice and gestures describe perfectly Julia Child´s figure and Stanley Tucci with her husband is very much something different role which i have use to see him. He usually plays in mafia/police action films, but this diplomate role suits him very well. Of course if you like food, you maybe like cooking and this is what is it about, passion and love for something. I sincerely recommend this film to everybody, because it makes you very good mood:)

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gallerista said...

Posted on Sep 21 2009 16:42 I really enjoyed this film. I agree the Julia child bits are the best. I grew up learning to cook with her book and still have the battered penguin book. makes one want to rush out and make something delicious. not for the men though at least in my household.

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Shelley said said...

Posted on Sep 16 2009 00:56 I really enjoyed this film. I'd gone to the pictures to please friends but privately thought the title and plot sounded awful. To my suprise, I found myself captivated by both women's stories and laughed out loud at the funny incidents. I also emerged with a burning desire to track down Julia's recipes and make some of that delicious food for myself. It will be up to you to decide if you love or hate this film. I would however recommend that you give it a whirl as my two friends and I thought it was a very, very enjoyable film.

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J. said...

Posted on Sep 15 2009 16:24 I am so glad I ignored all the negative comments and went to see this movie anyway. Yes, M Streep's new voice is interesting and different, but also quite funny. I thought it was a great film, but hey, you just have to see it yourself. M. Streep simply nailed the role, she is amazing! A. Adams was really funny, too. Very nice, heartwarming movie overall. P.S. I actually ended up googling J. Child's books after watching J&J :D

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Lady V. said...

Posted on Sep 15 2009 12:48 Well, I can't help those who didn't like the movie, but thanks for paying money to it, anyway. ;)
I did not know Julia Child before, because I'm not american. But even without this knowledge, I was pleased to see the most stunning performance by Meryl Streep in the last years.
That exactly makes her called the greatest actress in the world right now, because when you think, you know her actings, she comes with a new performance around the corner that blows you away. Yes, the voice. It might sound very annoiying, but it belongs to Julia Child and Streep nailed it perfectly. It's not an overdue, if Streep will get her 16. nomination and possible her third trophy for this.
I'm defenetly crossing my fingers for that.
The Julia-parts are the meat of this film of course. I love Stanley Tucci as her charming husband. They are such a cute couple.
But I also liked the Julie-parts very well. They might be not so interesting as the Julia-parts, but Amy Adams did a very well job as Julie Powell. I'm reading the book at the moment and Adams captured the neurotic and a bit egozentrich Powell very good.
I'm sorry for writing and grammar mistakes. English is not my native language.
Anyway, I like this film. Saw it twice and I don't regret it.

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ARCHGATE said...

Posted on Sep 13 2009 20:43 Meryl Streeps terrible screeching accent renders this film unwatchable. I left after 1 hour and was grateful to hear the London traffic rather than the Streep Screech.

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Readie said...

Posted on Sep 12 2009 11:40 Loved the Julia part of the film - personally I thought both Streep and Tucci were excellent, and the relationship between the two simply lovely - but the Julie part left me a bit cold. So she hates her job, lives in a pokey apartment on a busy road and above a shop, and is feeling unfulfilled as she hits 30. Well, don't we all, love. At least you've got a drippy but devoted husband to humour you as you decide to make a big fuss about the fact. Her "plight" felt particularly superficial when compared with the genuine challenges faced by Julia: in a foreign country, in a time where women's ambitions are laughed at, and touched by the McCarthy era. All this left me with a strong desire to give Julie a good hard slap.
(To be fair, this may be envy on my part. Around 2002 I wrote a blog, dreamed of a writing contract, and lived on the South Circular in a properly pokey flat above a locksmith shop. But do you see anyone wanting to make a film about my life? No you bloody don't.)
All that said, I found it an enjoyable, funny and in places heartwarming film - just as one would expect from Ephron - and would argue it's worth seeing just for the star turns from Streep and Tucci. Do prepare yourself for somewhat of a non-ending, though.

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sheila said...

Posted on Sep 10 2009 20:32 This is the worst film I have seen ever. Meryl Streep comes across like Edna Everage and after 2hours of this I wanted to wring her neck. There is no plot to speak of and there is no ending as such.

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