I wanted to post this review on Flixster, but it got too long, so here it is in its entirety.

I was bowled over by every aspect of Julie and Julia. It was masterfully directed, well staged, well costumed, well lit, etc. Meryl Streep at her worst is pretty damn good and in this she is at her best. It is great fun to see her play Julia Child, such a larger than life personality. The rest of the cast turns in rather outstanding performances as well. Jane Lynch is brilliant in her brief appearance as Julia’s sister.

That said, what I really want to talk about here, is the narrative. The biographical narrative of Julia Child is definitely the more engaging story, but it weaves together nicely with Julie Powell‘s story and the film becomes a nice study by contrast of both characters.

Though she embarks on her project several decades later, Julie is essentially a foil for Julia. I don’t know whether it made me appreciate Julia’s perseverance even more or it just made me marvel at just how spoiled, self-indulgent and impatient Julie, and let’s face it, her generation, present company included, is.

Julia is an older woman taking years to realize the dream of publishing a cookbook, one that had phenomenal cultural impact, to be sure, but she didn’t know that at the time. Julie also publishes a book, but she does so by literally following the directions set down by Julia. Both began their quest because they had reached a point where they were floundering and bored with their careers. Both succeed with the support of patient, loving husbands, but Julia spent years trying to convince publishers her project was valid. Her fate was in the hands of others. Julie picked up a computer and started a blog. The public decided its validity.

So Julie’s quest takes only a year, yet even then her frustration level is so high she almost gives up over something as simple as a dropped dish. The crises Julie encounters are small, mole hills made into mountains. Julia’s crises are mountains but she treats them like mole hills. She has breakdowns, but those that she has are over major traumas, such as the realization that she won’t be a mother in spite of her deepest desires. And yet her reaction on screen looks very much like the reaction Julie has over a ruined dish.

It is such an unbelievably poignant moment because we sense that her heart is cracking, but that she is bearing it stoically, pulling it back together like the omelet in the scene so often shown in the previews for the movies. These are private crises, shared only by her and her husband. They are the only ones in the kitchen and only they will know what happened!

So many critics have been critical of the film because they find Julie’s story less compelling than Julia’s and thus that the film is slower and less fun in those parts. I share that assessment. But I don’t think the sole purpose of the film is to entertain. Nora Ephron twined the stories together that way for a reason and it is part of what makes the film so compelling. Julie Powell knew she was following in Julia Child’s footsteps, and that is why she made the butter offering to the portrait of Julia in the end.
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