Julie & Julia

Publisher: Columbia Pictures	Running Time: 2 Hours 3 Minutes
Release Date: August 7, 2009	Format: Theatrical

The American “French Chef”, Julia Child, was a famous personality on television for years. Her cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, won her recognition worldwide. The response earned her a tv show in 1963. She died in 2004 at the age of 91 having spent a large portion of her adult life teaching everyday Americans how to cook exquisite recipes.

Fast forward to August 2002 in New York City where Julie Powell lives in a small apartment above a pizza shop with her husband. They had recently moved to Queens and Julie immediately regretted it. Her long hours working for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation in the wake of 9/11 added to her level of stress. There was only one thing that got her mind off of the world: cooking.

The story of the movie is based on Julie's blog (which subsequently was published as a book) about cooking. Her challenge was to cook each of the 524 recipes from Julia Child's cookbook in one year. The story weaves between Julie's daily struggles making the recipes and Julia Child's character (Meryl Streep) living life with her husband in Paris as he works for the American embassy.

Julia Child is an interesting character with a very distinct voice, abnormally tall body and charming personality. Julie is clearly fond of Julia's abilities as a chef, but also as a person. While her character can be somewhat annoying, I can see Julie being pretty much any woman in America struggling to just make it through the end of the day. It's really a good story and to see her prevail makes it all the more moving.

Final:	9 out of 10
Written by Kyle Bell	Write a User Review

Read 979 times.