Well, it wasn’t that long ago when Meryl Streep (It’s Complicated) hit the big screen as the beloved American cooking legend, Julia Child, in Julie & Julia, directed and written by Nora Ephron (You‘ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle). Not to mention that we were treated to Amy Adams’ (The Fighter) entertaining and tangible portrayal of the very real-life account of writer Julie Powell’s struggle to tackle Julia Child’s famous cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, via blogging her experiences with the book’s recipes everyday for a year.
While I recently underwent yet another self-deprecating battle of writer’s block, partly due to the stresses of the ever-taxing 9-to-5 office job, as well as a recent loss in the family, I turned to Julie & Julia to gain a sense of comfort. Isn’t that why we watch movies to begin with? To escape?
While I hardly had the attention to span or alertness to watch the entire 123 minutes in one sitting, especially during an unexpected early June heat wave, I watched a half hour here and twenty minutes there, as though watching the back-to-back similarities in Julie and Julia’s personal journeys of self-discovery in segments to try and find my own way a little bit everyday.
SIDENOTE: Of course, what I had in mind for an article like this was to feature some classic, old movies of yester years and how they relate to modern films or something like that, á la Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, or Elizabeth Taylor, but the for those very special movies, the words were definitely not flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup.
So, here we have 2009’s Julie & Julia. While some may turn to eating food for comfort, a much healthier and waistline friendly option for me was to watch the movie and ogle at the endless shots of melted butter, grated cheese, and other baking sensations that were illustrated during Julia’s life in France and in Julie’s pint-sized kitchen in her Queens apartment.
I couldn’t quite fathom the power that blogging or writing in this kind of world-wide-web capacity had at the start of Julie’s story, which was in 2002, just months after the 9/11 tragedy. At that time, I was completing my first year of college, even before the days of MySpace. I didn’t even have my own cell phone, and could only put “toast” under the list of my culinary skills.
However, this article is meant to serve as an analysis of the movie, but how can I not put a little of myself in it? After all, it embraces so many of the passions that I have and hope to express through my own writing. Again, isn’t that what movies are supposed to do? Force us to make internal judgments of ourselves? For example: Writing itself is prominent in the movie. Julie is on the cusp of turning thirty (I’ve got a couple more years to go, but I get where she stands), and has yet to make her mark as a writer since she devotes so much time to her office job and takes pleasure in cooking at home for her husband. I am not married, but revel in the days off when I can make my own triple berry muffins or surprise myself with nutella and cinnamon brownies.
And then there’s the food. Julia was a fierce eater and has a very admirable point of view in trying to translate the richness of French cooking to American cooks who do not have the 
luxury of personal chefs. When trying to figure out what to do with herself while her adoring husband Paul, played by the delightful and always charming Stanley Tucci, is involved in some serious government work, Julia realizes that she’s good at eating. It was as simple as that. What better way to enjoy Parisian life than to eat your way through it?
It’s all over the news and health-related headlines that overeating is a prominent and dangerous hazard to Americans, but to carefully consider that what you’re preparing or what you choose to eat is your own thoughtful luxury, is how I try to look at food, especially in the case of this particular movie. Julia Child cooked because she was proud to eat, and each plate was an addicting trophy of flavors.
Baking and cooking are now hobbies of mine, thanks in part to my encouraging and patient boyfriend. How many more meltdowns would Julie have had if not for her husband, played by Chris Messina? For me, learning about all the different ways that ingredients can be prepared, especially having ventured across the pond this year for the very first time has made this movie all the more special for me. Even though Julia was stationed in France for a good chunk of her story, I went to Italy in January, and marveled at the most delicious melanzane in carrozza (fried eggplant in a carriage of mozzarella) that I never knew existed.
Julie taught me that having an entire lexicon at your fingertips and an online blogging forum in which you can challenge yourself, is the second best way, aside from actually doing the cooking, to rejoice in food. Even though I have my own blog, embracing the movie as much as I do, I am glad to share my thoughts as an informal movie editorial.
SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE MOVIE: I always cry at the end when Julie visit’s the Julia Child exhibit at the Smithsonian, having received countless phone calls offering her book deals, leaving a box of butter behind as a mutually-loved memento. And when Julia cries out for Paul on the porch of their new home because she gets 
the letter from Knopf that they want to publish her book after years of rewrites and rejections. It’s these magic moments that invite audiences to become loyal observers and participants of movies, as well as well-informed individuals that whoever you are, if you’re a writer, a cook, or any person with a dream, you too can find success even when you have to struggle to get to it.
Streep received yet another Oscar nomination for the film, but lost to Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side. Adams earned quite a lot of notoriety, but was incredibly overshadowed by Streep’s powerhouse performance, although the two never even shared a single scene together. I see Adam’s depiction of Julie as that of a peer, and not necessarily someone who watches movie to critique them for a website such as this. Her hesitation in boiling live lobsters and self-assuredness in copying step-by-step Child’s instructions for de-boning a duck are most likely what I would experience, if I was that brave of a preparer of foods. For more on Powell’s experience, you can check out Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously.
As far as biopics go, even though the movie is split in two to show Julia Child based on her book, My Life in France with Alex Prud’homme, verses Julie’s account during her blog challenge, this is by far one of my favorite movies of all time. If ever the right screenwriter was to pair with the right director, and in this case both were Ephron, I would really love to see more about Julia Child on-screen, and any adventures of hers following the publication of her book, if and only if Streep continued with the part!
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