Julie and Julia
Julie and Julia reunites last years Oscar nominees for Doubt Amy Adams and Meryl Streep – sort of. They never actually share the screen together because they’re living in dimensions 50 years apart but connected by a love of French Cuisine. Julia (Streep) is legendary TV gourmet chef Julia Child while Julie (Adams) is Julie Powell, a thirtysomething woman trapped in a stressful post 9-11 job. Outside of her almost always supportive husband Eric (Chris Messina) her only solace is churning out good eats in the kitchen. To placate her inner frustrated writer, she starts a blog outlining her self imposed one year deadline to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This 2002 exercise was turned into the book Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen. Meantime, in addition to her legendary cook book Child also wrote her memoir My Life in France about her days after WW 2 as the wife of Paul Child (Stanley Tucci), an American diplomat stationed in Paris where her culinary interest originated. Writer/Director Nora Ephron seamlessly juxtaposes the two stories and offers a comedy of non stop genuine laughs. In a way it’s good that the two actors never share the screen as it would be difficult to say who would steal the scene but if betting were necessary it would be Meryl Streep who literally becomes Julia Child. She serves up such depth to a character that we all thought we knew and introduces someone you would love to have dinner with – and not just because she’s doing the cooking.