Good friggin' grief, Charlie Brown...Stephenstein went and saw a "chick flick". I must be mad. Well, I am. I'm mad because why did Julie get her name in the title before Julia? I mean, Julia Child was famous, for crying out loud! She's been on television, she's been published, I've at least heard of Julia Child, who in the blue hell is Julie Powell? And why is Amy Adams playing her? And that usher, the guy who comes in right before the movie before it starts, you know, the dork with the hat and the notepad, what is he writing down, while looking at the screen before he leaves? Will somebody please tell me?
Alright, enough about my pet peeves. This movie is about cooking...and making something of yourself through cooking. That's right, no Hell's Kitchen, no Gordon Ramsay shouting and swearing at people (entertaining as that is), we have some serious people here who want to cook. Julia Child is bored, and discovers through her passion of eating, that she should try cooking. She goes to an all-male classroom, the woman who let her into the the program in the first place doesn't like her, and despite these obstacles, becomes a master chef.
Julie Powell, on the other hand, has a dead-end job, her apartment is terrible, and her dreams of becoming a writer have never come to fruition. Her husband suggests that she combine the two things she's good at...cooking (duh), and writing, and write a blog about doing all of Julia Child's recipes. She begins the quest, and gradually, her blog picks up momentum.
So, we now know it is possible for people to care about you through a blog. Great! Now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Needless to say, though Amy Adams is terrific as Julie, there are some things about this movie I'm a little iffy on. Firstly, Julie's quest, while noble, is not as noble as Julia's. Julia just wants to do something with her life, not caring about fame and fortune. Julie had the advantage of following Julia's footsteps, and of course, because Julia Child is a brand name (at least in the arena of cooking), you had a built in audience that would be willing to buy whatever you were selling. Julia Child brought French cooking to America...Julie did what?
Added her blog to the galaxy of other blogs out there? Like I said, not saying Julie doesn't deserve her good fortune, because doing over 500 receipes in one year has gotta be tough, but arguably not as tough as going against the norms of an entire society.
Then we have the problem of this movie being too long, and I do mean, too looooong. The movie is over 2 hours, which is problematic when the most exciting thing anyone is doing on screen is...cooking. Of course, there's spats with loved ones, spats with collaborators, a little bit of personal stuff in both women's lives that DON'T involve cooking, but overall, yeah, it's cooking. Not too exciting.
That's not the say the movie was completely boring or anything. Meryl Streep is extremely amusing as Julia Child, and she works well with Stanley Tucci, who plays her husband. Amy Adams has a sweet vulnerability about her that makes her sections of the film tolerable (and no, I didn't buy that she was a self-centred bitch, like the movie tries to imply at one point), and both women are struggling to make something of themselves in the world, so that's good, too. In the end, this movie is decent, not something you want to replay over and over again, but it was a nice little tale of overcoming odds, and making something of one's self, which is always nice to see.
Rating 3 out of 5 stars.
I bid thee a fond (and full) goodnight.
-Stephenstein
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