Julie & Julia

Julie & Julia Review

I love the movie JULIE & JULIA and the BLURAY edition has some great extras.

If you haven't seen the movie, "JULIE & JULIA" is based on the book Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously about writer Julie Powell's blog about cooking 524 of Julia Child's recipes from the book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1, in one year. It also goes back in time and shows what was going on in Child's life and how the book came about. But the movie is so much more than a cook-a-thon and bio-pic. It also deals with how people can transform their lives by following their passion, even when everyone else says you can't do it. The film also shows the love that people can have for one another and how eating is so much more than just satisfying hunger; it brings people together.

The movie is funny, has dramatic moments, and the cast is outstanding! I think Meryl Streep did Julia Child better than Julia herself, LOL.

And the set and wardrobe designs for the Julia Child segments are beautiful.

The JULIE & JULIA BLU-RAY features these extras:

===== SPECIAL FEATURES ======

* 27:35-minute featurette -- "Creating Julie & Julia"
Director Nora Ephron, the real Julie Powell, Meryl Streep (Julia), Amy Adams (Powell), Chris Messina (Powell's husband in the film), Stanley Tucci (Paul Child), Jane Lynch (Julia's sister in the film), costume designer Ann Roth, Child's nephew Alex Prud'Homme, and others discuss making the movie and the books.

* 47:29-minute featurette -- "Friends and Family Remember Julia Child"
Judith Jones the editor who worked with Julia Child's first book, co-author Simone Beck (Simca), nephew Alex Prud'Homme, and others discuss what it was like working with Julia Child and how it was growing up with such a famous aunt.

* 22:21-minute featurette -- "Julia's Kitchen"
Smithsonian curators discuss meeting with Child and how they managed to take her kitchen and place it at the Smithsonian. Very insightful and you get a tour of the kitchen and all the stuff in there.

* 5 Cooking Lessons *
Five cooking lessons -- two with Julia Child "Poaching Eggs" and "Making Hollandaise Sauce"-- the other three recipes feature other chefs: "Scrambled Eggs," "Braised Beef Short Ribs," and "Butter Poached Maine Lobster." I haven't done any of the recipes but they look good.

Anyway, there's something really delightful in JULIE & JULIA and even though I've seen it many times now, the first being on cable, I never get tired of watching it.

Julie & Julia Overview

A culinary legend provides a frustrated office worker with a new recipe for life in Julie & Julia, the true stories of how Julia Child's (Meryl Streep) life and cookbook inspired fledgling writer Julie Powell (Amy Adams) to whip up 524 recipes in 365 days and introduce a new generation to the magic of French cooking. Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) co-stars in director Nora Ephron's delicious comedy about joy, obsession and butter. Bon appétit!

Julie & Julia Specifications

Julie & Julia is a film that should be relished with gusto--accompanied by the freshest and best ingredients, pounds of butter, and bottles of the very best wine. It lovingly celebrates the life of one of American food's most influential and beloved figureheads: Julia Child--played here with zest, humor, and a sweet, subtle respect by Meryl Streep, whose performance is spectacular.

Julie & Julia is based on the book by Julie Powell, a frustrated New York bureaucrat who wants to be a writer. "But you're not a writer until someone publishes you," she moans. So she gives herself a challenge: to cook her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year, and to blog about it. As Powell (played with chirpy determination by Amy Adams), begins to find her groove as a cook, and her voice as a writer, the project takes on a life of its own--and in the end it does provide the struggling young woman with her life's purpose, to her very pleasant surprise. But mostly, Julie & Julia is a valentine to Child, to Child's amazing love affair with her dashing husband, Paul (Stanley Tucci, as divine as any soufflé in the film), and to her outlook on embracing life, and ordering seconds. Streep throws herself into the Child role with real affection for her character, and while certain of Child's idiosyncrasies--including her warbly voice and unflappable haphazardness in the kitchen--are retained, it's Child's character and vision which form Streep's portrayal, and which make the film so involving and rewarding.

Nora Ephron directs with deftness and a light touch, though she seems at times to be encouraging some of Meg Ryan's onscreen tics in Adams (the self-conscious head tilt, for one). But mostly she simply allows Streep to channel Child and her love of food, her husband, and 1950s Paris. And that is a recipe for something truly sublime. --A.T. Hurley

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