Julie & Julia (2009)

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8 out of 10: Must See!

Director: Nora Ephron

Stars: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, and Chris Messina

Julie & Julia, based on the popular book by Julie Powell, is the story of two people: Julia Child, the famous American Chef who specialized in French cuisine, and Julie Powell, the woman who decided to cook her way through Julia Child's cookbook. The movie splits into two different parts as it tells the two different stories; one story is about Julia Child's cooking career, and the other is about Julie Powell's blogging experiment to better help her life. As the stories unfold, both lives are effected by food.

WARNING: Contains Spoilers!! Seriously! The following is spoiled. So please don't read if you don't want to be angry!!!

Alright, let's get into this review, shall we? 

First word of warning: THIS MOVIE WILL MAKE YOU VERY VERY HUNGRY. Both times I saw it (yes, both times), I had to stop back into the concession stand to order food because I was so hungry. I also almost stopped at Borders to pick up my own copy of "Mastering the Art Of French Cuisine" by Julia Child. 

Second word of warning: YOU WILL WANT TO MOVE TO PARIS. After watching the movie, I was just as desperate to move to Paris as Julia was in the movie. I wanted to walk down those streets, buying all the best food and meeting all the best people. It just looked so fantastic.

But I digress...

The movie itself was very good. Meryl Streep, but of course, plays the boistrous Julia Child. She puts so much character into the, well, character that the audience (at least I did) feel like I knew her personally. She was so fun, loud, proud, and adorable... I just wanted to be around her all the time. And Amy Adams! Normally, it takes a while for me to get used to her acting. In all of her previous movies she seems to overact everything. But in this, she had a chance to play a normal woman. A normal thirty-year old woman. A woman who has pretty much the worst job in the world, but the best-looking husband ever (I'll get into that in a second). And she was so fantastic in it! I mean, after all, I wanted to be her in the entire movie.... only because she was so fantastic.

The side characters (Stanley Tucci playing Paul Child, Chris Messina playing Eric Powell) were also show stoppers. The lovable Tucci was so wonderful as Paul Child.... and as he stays mostly silent, he is still just an adorable character and a fantastic addition to the cast (Best line: "Fuck them!"). And Chris Messina..... oh my! Talk about (eye) candy!!! I would NEVER mind having him as a husband.... or playing his wife in a movie. Half the time he was on the screen, I couldn't help but think that he should be getting some (if'n you know what I mean). But, as he plays the fantastic husband, he still is downplayed enough to be lovable as well. And like I said, it's not so bad watching him pop up on the screen every twenty minutes or so.

As for the movie itself, the transitions were smooth and easy. Instead of doing something like a black screen that says "Julie" or "Julia", each scene sort of meshed together. The movie opens with Julia and Paul moving to France, and then the next scene is Julie and Eric moving into Queens, New York. As Julie is about to meet someone famous, Julia meets someone famous. So on and so forth. Each scene seemed to copy each other, but they were different enough to keep the audience interested in what was going on. 

But, my favorite part of the movie was the balance of Julie and Julia. When I first saw the preview, I felt that the Amy Adams part of the story would completely overpower the story of Julia Child. In fact, the preview was almost a deal-breaker for me... however, I stuck through and decided to go and see it. Boy was I surprised to find out that basically both sides of the story were equally spread. Just when you think the Amy Adams side of the story is taking over, a very long Julia Child scene triumphs and cancels out. I was so happy to see both sides equally because I felt like I wasn't missing anything at all. It gave me enough time to be emotionally linked with all the characters, which is always important in a chick flick-ish type movie.

And by the time it was over, I was tearing up. Any movie that makes me wanna cry tears of joy/sadness is always a good movie. And this movie provides the emotion in a good way. You watch Julie set a giant stick of butter beneath a picture of Julia Child and say "I love you, Julia," before walking away (always significant because of the previous meltdown where she heard that Julia did not like her blog). Then, a nice timeline shot of the kitchen transitions the stories back to Julia, as she cooks her meal in her kitchen. Paul sits down at the table and hands her a package obviously containing the newly published cook book. And as Julia gets so emotional over this momentous moment, the camera freezes and fades away, leaving the audience with a tear in their eye and a smile on their face.

Overall, this movie was adorable. From Meryl Streep's timeless performance, to Stanley Tucci's just wonderful character, from Amy Adams meltdowns and smiles, to Chris Messina's just all around hot, well, self. This movie is definitely one to see, and I would go again in a heartbeat. So get out there and Bon Appetit!