Julie & Jula: Mastering The Art of Great Chick Flicks

Amy Adams and Meryl Streep are together again after their Oscar nominated performances in Doubt. But even though they play the  title characters in Julie and Julia,  they don’t have any scenes together. As a matter of fact, they are separated not only by an ocean, but by more than 30 years.

Julie

Julie & Julia is the story of one woman who is inspired  by another women to achieve her dreams. It tells the parallel stories of Julie Powell and Julia Child.  Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams),is a frustrated employee at a government bureaucracy who decides to write a blog. And like most bloggers, she writes about her passion, which happens to be cooking. She uses Julia Child as the inspiration for her blog, The Julie/Julia Project.

“Government drone by day, renegade foodie by night. Too old for theatre, too young for children, and too bitter for anything else, Julie Powell was looking for a challenge. And in the Julie/Julia project she found it. Risking her marriage, her job, and her cats’ well-being, she has signed on for a deranged assignment.

365 days. 536 recipes. One girl and a crappy outer borough kitchen.

How far will it go? We can only wait. And wait. And wait…..
The Julie/Julia Project. Coming soon to a computer terminal near you.”

She decides to chronicle her experience of cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s  Mastering the Art of French Cooking in just one year. Think of it, that is more than 500 recipes! That’s makes me feel bad, because some days after slaving over a hot keyboard, working the man every night & day, I can just gather enough strength to make a peanut butter sandwich for dinner. I guess its good, I write about movies  on my blog. There are good days and bad days. All the while she gains a few pounds (its all that butter) and some insights into herself and  gets a book deal.  I really like the blogging parts of the movie. I understand her, because I have learned a lot about myself since I have been writing this blog. I don’t have a book deal and there isn’t a movie about my life on the horizon (but if there ever is, I want Halle Berry to play me-I’m just sayin’), but the more I do this the more I learn. Oh yeah…the review… So she cooks all this wonderful food.

Julia

Julia Child, played by Meryl Streep is the wife of a diplomat living in France. Meryl’s  The  Devil Wear Prada co-star  Stanley Tucci plays  her husband, Paul Child.    After working for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during WWII and traveling the near east, she was used to a little adventure. The 6′ 2″, Julia was not content to be a housewife. She eventually decides to follow her passion for French food. She learned to cook, wrote a monumental cookbook and changed everything. I am not sure , but I think Julia Child was the first celebrity chef. Her PBS television series, The French Chef was part cooking lesson and part comedy due to Julia’s personality.

Nora Ephron directed Julia and Julia, which is based on Julie Powell’s Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously and  Julia Childs’ My Life in France.  Meryl Streep does a wonderful job of portraying the larger than life Julia Child. I really enjoyed this movie for the way it told the stories of two women who were searching for way to improve themselves and who both found themselves in food.

I have been complaining asking for better chick flicks for a while now. I am on a campaign to let the world know that  chick flicks don’t have to be sappy love stories  about love starved females.  They should be movies that appeal to women and  tell our stories  in an entertaining way.  Julie & Julia satisfied my appetite for a really good chick flick.

One last word of advice: Don’t watch this movie on an empty stomach. After watching  Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci consume sumptuous meals and Amy Adams prepare Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon, Chocolate Souffle’ and the list goes on. Well, all I can says is, my friend and I left the theater with an overwhelming desire for CAKE!

Read the book: My Life in France by Julia Child

Mastering The Art of French Cooking

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