Movie #22 – Julie & Julia

Julie/Julia – Tuesday, August 11
Date : Kim
Value : $20
Total so far: $379
Location: Dartmouth Crossing

Another rainy day!  If this keeps up, I may set a record for number of movies I’ve seen in one week!  The movie Julie/Julia was just released this week, so I hadn’t planned on going for a little while, but after seeing the small amount of people in the theatre yesterday I figured they would let me in despite the fact that passes were not accepted – and they did!

Before going to this movie I decided to buy the book by Julie Powell for my summer reading. I started off enjoying it since I share her love of preparing food, but soon lost interest as the book seemed to jump around a bit and I couldn’t really see the real purpose of Julie doing this project.  I find the movie does this a bit better as it keeps the Julie side of things on track, and focuses only on a few of the pivotal moments that helped her realize how cooking through Mastering the Art of French Cooking allowed her to discover her talents and her own secrets to happiness.

The other part of the movie that I enjoyed better than the book was that the Julia Child character (played marvelously by Meryl Streep) took up a good 50% of the screen time.  The book features letters written between Julia and Paul Child and their relatives and friends, but doesn’t exactly get into who she actually was.  I used to watch The French Chef with my mother on Sundays on PBS, and always thought she was an interesting lady.  There were many facts that I didn’t know including how passionate her love life with her husband was, how old she was when she starting cooking, and her international spy work!

I’ve heard a few people comment saying that they enjoyed the Julia Child portions of the movie much more than the Julie parts, but I enjoyed both and thought they played alongside eachother very well.  Of course Meryl Streep is going to overwhelm poor Amy Adams, but only because she is playing a character that so many people recognize, and who is known for being larger than life.

I really enjoyed the movie and would encourage anyone who was a fan of Julia Child, or a fan of cooking to go and see it.  It has inspired me to take a few less shortcuts in the kitchen, and maybe even try to make my own Beef Bourguignon!