Julia & Julia: finally!

Having finally seen Julie & Julia as part of the Sydney International Food Festival, I have to say that while it was enjoyable it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be. Yes, I probably did build up my expectations beyond the flick’s realistic potential but given my newfound obsession with food blogging, I felt I could really relate to the story of Julie Powell, the novice cook who blogged her way through 520+ recipes from Julia Child’s classic cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a single year.

Unfortunately, in the end, I found Julie to be a bit of a drip. In fairness to both Julie and actress Amy Adams (above right) who plays her in the film, it’s probably not her/their fault. The tagline for the movie’s publicity materials declare that it’s based on “two true stories” and the fact is that Julia Childs’ life story, with the legendary Meryl Streep playing the French home-cooking guru, by far eclipses Julie’s story. The richness of Julia’s life as an American diplomat’s wife in ‘50s Paris contrasts with Julie’s day-to-day existence in 2002 Queens like butter and low-fat cooking spray.

This movie is largely about parallel lives and yet  for me, there is no parallel. I admire what Julie did - it showed passion, dedication and vision at a time when food blogging was still in its infancy (on a dollars and cents level, I think she’s still one of the few people to make money out of it) but for me the Julie Powell half of the story felt too thin to anchor the twin storyline. Julie herself came across as whiny and self-absorbed. Julia on the other hand exudes passion, elegance and eccentricity, and despite Meryl’s somewhat exaggerated (surely?) mimicry of the real life Child’s accent and mannerisms, is by far the more well-rounded person.

It goes without saying that the other star of the movie is the food itself. Mastering the Art of French Cooking has made it on to US bestseller lists since the release of the movie there in August and I wouldn’t be surprised if it does the same thing here.



PS: I stumbled across Julie Powell’s current blog a couple of months ago and have been dropping in intermittently since. I’ve found stepping back to the original Julie/Julia Project pages quite fun but otherwise, it seems to lack direction. I’d be interested to know what you think.