Movie Review: Julie & Julia (2009), Directed by Nora Ephron

There is a television ad currently playing every few minutes for Nora Ephron’s new film Julie & Julia. In it, we see a reconstruction of an old black & white television clip from Julia Child’s cooking show, with Meryl Streep as Child. No matter how many times I see this ad, I am convinced that I am watching a commercial for a PBS special about the real Julia Child. This is how compelling I find Streep’s performance.

Streep captures not only the talent and professionalism of the late Child, but, more importantly, the sheer joy in the heart of this culinary icon. She approaches everything, whether it’s cooking, talking to her empathetic husband, or trying to write a book on cooking, with the kind of exuberant emotional commitment that many of us wish we could emulate, even if for only one hour of the day.

The fact that Streep’s performance is so virtuosic means that the rest of the film is a bit of a disappointment. As everyone is probably aware by now, Ephron’s movie tells the parallel stories of Child becoming a chef in Paris while her husband is in France on a diplomatic mission, and that of Julie Powell (Amy Adams) a 21st-century young professional who spends most of the movie griping that she lives in Queens rather than Manhattan. Powell finds some satisfaction by cooking her way through Child’s seminal The Art of Mastering French Cuisine and blogging about the experience. The fact that Adams seems like a lightweight compared to Streep is not entirely the young actresses’ fault. How can the story of a very ordinary young woman trying to vent her frustration through culinary activity compare with that of an extraordinary American woman in Paris starting a revolution?

When Ephron’s film focused on Child’s story, my eyes were glued to the screen. I was not only wowed by Streep, but also by Stanley Tucci, who plays Child’s diplomatic husband with a rare kind of sensitivity and grace. Chris Messina, on the other hand, plays Julie Powell’s completely uninteresting spouse and succeeded in causing me to nod off every time he spoke a line of dialogue.

Julie & Julia, in true Nora Ephron fashion, is far, far, far from perfect. It has so many flaws that I could write a book about it. But, Streep’s performance is one for the ages and should be seen by anyone who loves to watch master actors at work. The film also made me quite hungry. Bon appetite!