Julie and Julia

A Meryl Streep film is showing at the cinema and you know you just have to go watch it. So off I went this afternoon to watch Julie and Julia, dragging an unwilling friend along with me. There were loud protests of being dragged for a chick’s flick though I think the said friend secretly suspected it had one of my favoured subverted, depressing feminist storylines…as you guessed correctly neither of us had a clue about the film, apart from the fact that Meryl Streep was in it!

Two hours later, we walked out with smiles on our face, content with an afternoon spent well. My friend, refusing to give me any credit for having chosen a good film for us, reiterated the fact that you can’t go wrong with Meryl Streep! I, for one, am completely delighted with the film and am going to get Extempore to procure Julie Child’s book for me!

Based on two real stories about Julia Child, the lady who revealed the secret of French cooking to American women and Julie Powell who found a passion in life after rediscovering Julie Child’s recipe book and starting the blog The Julie/ Julia Project in which she pledges to successfully try out all the 524 recipes in 365 days. Smoothly intertwining the two lives of Julia Child in the 1940s and Julie Powell in the 21st century in a classic palimpsest, the film whets the appetite, amuses and warms the heart.

The story starts in 1946, Julia Child, lands in Paris with her husband Paul Child, a diplomat working with the American Embassy. After trying unsuccessfully to engage herself in various activities organised for the wives of the American diplomats, Julie finally finds her calling in The Cordon Bleu, a school for professional cooks. Despite the scepticism from those around her, Julia soon masters the art of French cooking, investing in it the same love and passion that she invests in her marriage. She goes on to publish a book of recipes in collaboration with her friend Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle,

Fifty years later, Julie Powell, a government employee and failed writer who enjoys cooking launches the Julie/ Julia project in which she signs up for a deranged assignment of making each and every one of the dishes in Child’s book and blogging about her experiences. Over a series of adventures and misadventures in her tiny kitchen in an apartment above a pizzeria in Queens, Julie’s project grows from a tiny, unknown fledgling to a proud swan that not only brings her fame but also helps her realise her dream of finally becoming a published author.

The inimitable Meryl Streep is perfect as Julia Child. Her Americanised “Bon Appétit” is still ringing in my ears and I find myself chuckling every time I remember the scene in which Paul returns home to find her chopping onions. The lady is pure genius all the way from She Devil to The Devil Wears Prada and now this film. She is complemented wonderfully by her co-actor of The Devil Wears Prada, Stanley Tucci, who plays the role of Paul Child, her loving and supportive husband. The younger Julie Powell, played by Amy Adams, who struggles to successfully try out each and every one of the recipes in Child’s masterpiece, is delightful as well, especially in the scenes when she has to kill the lobster and when she fails to truss a chicken!

A film about the passion and conviction to follow a dream to the end, this gourmet film is perfect to complete a lazy Sunday afternoon…a must watch :-)