Julie & Julia

Nora Ephron’s latest is an amalgamation of two books, My Life in France, a memoir by the cook Julia Child, and Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, by Julie Powell. Powell’s book is based on her blog, where she cooked the aforementioned number of recipes (by Child) in a year. The film itself is a two handed as we switch backwards and forwards between Child in 1940’s/50’s Paris and Powell in New York City in 2002. This device works well as, Meryl Streep as Julia Child, and Amy Adams as Julie Powell, both hold the screen when it is their vignette, but, for different reasons, each start to grate after more then 15 minutes. Streep’s performance is somewhat over the top, but apparently a pretty accurate portrayal of Child. As expected she dominates the film. Her hilarious mannerisms and one-liners give us many a laugh and her chemistry with Stanley Tucci is excellent. However, it is a relief when we swap back to New York as Child’s eccentricity gets a bit too much too quickly. Adams is perfectly fine as Powell, but her role quite simply doesn’t have enough emotional depth to engage us. She has a rubbish job (hey, who doesn’t?), wants a better flat (hey, who doesn’t?) and cooks (hey, who…well, you get the point). In reality the experiment caused major problems in her life, but in the film this is shown as a (totally unbelievable) argument with her husband. In addition, Paul Child’s grilling at the hands of a McCarthy interview board was probably harder to get over than a cuddle in bed. However, let’s not be too hard here. This isn’t a hard hitting drama, but pure light entertainment with some fun performances. In addition, there is some excellent attention to detail ranging from the eye catching Parisian sets to some smart camera tricks to make Streep look like the lanky 6’2’’ Child.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
As expected, very fluffy, but also very funny. Streep is hilarious at times, and yes, you will be hungry by the end of the film. Rating: 7/10.