Julie & Julia
Chickflick!?
Well, to come clean, I have to admit I’m an absolute foodie. I love to eat, and love to cook. This also means I devour everything cooking. I love buying gear. I love wandering in cookbooks. I love cooking shows on the telly. And I absolutely love movies about food, even chickflicks.
There I said it!
So what’s this Julie & Julia (2009) movie about? It’s about a girl, Julie Powell, getting thirty, living in a small apartment in Queens, and looking for a goal in her live. She finds it in Julia Child, or better her Opus Magnus, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The book has 524 recipes, and it”s Julie’s challenge to cook them all in just 1 year! As a hobby chef that is, so after office hours. And she’ll blog about it!
At the same time the movie tells the story of Julia Child. How she discovers cooking as an American in Paris, and how she writes her book. The first and most complete book of French cooking written in English.
To be honest, I never heard about Julia Child before I heard about the movie. But I’m not an American, and the cookbook is not very famous over here. So I only have to assume she’s a big thing over there. So all I know about her is from this movie. That’s why I appreciate the double story line. The entertaining, relaxing (even a bit inspiring) part of Julie’s challenge, and the history lesson.
I enjoyed the movie, especially as a foodlover I guess. A bit too chicky from time to time, and it lacks some speed in some parts. And I’m also very curious to learn how the story evolves, but then it ends .. All things considered I thought it was an entertaining flick.
What really adds some value to the story is the realness. Julie Powell has a real blog (she’s a real person, not a film character!), and you can even still discover the blog where the movie is all about: The Julie/Julia project. Here’s her original post, comes back in the movie. That’s pretty interesting to me!
Ah, and by the way, great actresses. Meryl Streep shines as Julia Child and Amy Adams who plays Julie does a pretty good job as well. Directed by Nora Ephron, typical chickflick with balls director, which you might know from Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry met Sally.
