Julie and Julia

Julie and Julia is the story of two women in their quest to find themselves through marriage and cooking. Julie Powell (Amy Adams) is a low-level government worker helping the victims of the September 11th attacks. Julia Child (Meryl Streep) is the wife of a low-level consulate officer who is assigned to the paris embassy. Their husbands Eric (Chris Messina) and Paul (Stanley Tucci) each are supportive of whatever their wives want to do. Julie decides, after a friend writes an article of the "lost generation," to which I also belong, and includes her as failing her dreams of being a writer, to write a blog about something. Her husband suggests that, since she enjoys cooking, she write about cooking. Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is her muse. Julia, on the other hand, is a childless and bored housewife. Her husband, during a dinner discussion, suggests she do something, and she concludes that she loves French Cooking. So she joins Le Cordon Bleu Institute and becomes a master chef. She meets other like-minded women and agrees to write a cookbook for American housewives. Their stories are linked with failures, triumphs, writing and cooking.

I am struck by the parallelism involved in the film. By the colors each of them wore in their costumes, by the editing and by the fusion of the two stories. Based on two separate books, the film is woven together brilliantly by the director and writers. Incredibly, they are both true stories. With the similarities there are differences as well. The two women are very different from each other. The modernity of the world is shown beautifully through Ms Adams' performance as well as the vintage performance by Ms. Streep. I was struck particularly by Stanley Tucci's performance in Paul’s romance, love and support.

The directing was superb and graceful. I was struck by the sub-plot with Julia's sterility. As she and Paul are walking down the streets of Paris trying to find something for her to do, they pass a couple with their baby buggy and Meryl's Julia stiffens ever so slightly and Stanley's Paul feels it and the supporting love is on. Bravo Nora Ephron!! As well, the editing parallels were brilliant. There's three distinct transitions that I love: Juile's failed stew, to Julia packing up the exact same pot to leave Paris, Juila laying in bed and pulling the blankets over her head with Juile popping out of hers after Eric leaves her, and finally the push-edit into the Smithsonian Kitchen to Julia's home kitchen. Beautiful!!

And this film is just that!!

***

Exit Actor: Stanley Tucci

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