Julie & Julia

I was lucky enough to see a preview screening of Julie & Julia earlier this week, thanks to my savvy girlfriends (who are also bloggers: FrostBites and MyNYPlate), who scored free tickets. I'm a big fan of Nora Ephron and Amy Adams, and an even bigger fan of Meryl Streep - and, well, food - and the film did not disappoint. Ms. Streep literally IS Julia Child - what a performance... her emotional range and ability to really live her character is amazing, as always. It's also pretty brilliant how food is essentially the third main character in the movie - you totally get how it transformed the lives of the main characters, and how Julia Child in turn also transformed food and cooking for our culture. She was said to have had her 'culinary revelation' as a result of a meal in France of oysters and sole meunière, and what a wonderful scene that is in the movie - the feeling of this is conveyed completely. Aside from a great screenplay and wonderful performances, this is a really gorgeous film... can I please transport myself to Paris in the late 1940s/50s and train at Le Cordon Bleu too??

I'm tuning out the chatter of some food bloggers who are turning up their noses at this film - yes, Julie Powell (whose memoir inspired this film, and who is played by Ms. Adams) is one VERY lucky lady for obvious reasons here - but her real life persona aside (which, to be fair, I don't know much about as I haven't read her book and only have a sense based on interviews and other snippets I've read about her in the news or heard from friends), I rather enjoyed the character based on her and the way Ms. Adams/Ephron portrayed her. As someone who loves to cook and bake and finds the process of each to be extremely cathartic and thoroughly enjoyable - albeit frusturating at times - I liked watching this character move through a year of her life, working her way through friendships, work, her marriage and Julia Child's foremost cookbook. And, the Julia Child storyline was brilliant - in addition to Ms. Streep, Stanley Tucci was perfect as her adoring husband, as were other secondary characters in her life (namely Jane Lynch as Julia's sister). I almost wish the Julia Child portion of the film could have been expanded on to be its own full movie! So, enough gushing - go see this movie as soon as it comes out, and go either with a full stomach or make dinner reservations for afterward :)

Oh and as one last aside, this article in the NYTimes about food in films is pretty interesting - it jumps around a bit, but is a good read and left me adding another dream job to my list: movie food stylist!