by Peggy Tee

Created on: October 05, 2009   Last Updated: October 22, 2009

Nora Ephron's newest offering is a souffle-light, breezily delicious movie about the lives of Julia Child and Julie Powell. The former needs no introduction to the millions of Americans who grew up with her touchstone book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a work that transfigured the culinary landscape of households across the country. The latter is a 29-year-old government employee living in Queens, New York, who decided to cook all 524 recipes in Julia's book in 365 days and blog about it, attracting the attention of the New York Times and subsequently turning her blog into a book.

In Julie & Julia we are introduced in parallel to both women's stories, one in modern New York, the other in Paris in the Forties and Fifties. Both women take to cooking with gusto because of a certain inner restlessness Julia wants something to do while her husband, Paul Child (played with great understatement and alacrity by Stanley Tucci) is at work while Julie, humiliated early in the film by a table full of college friends flaunting personal assistants, high flying deals and BlackBerrys, persists with her project to prove she can finish the things she starts.

Tucci and Streep are perfectly cast together in Julie & Julia. Their performances are so flawless together that every scene with them in is a delight. Amy Adams is competent as Powell, but she is overshadowed by Meryl Streep as Child, whose performance could easily be nominated for an Oscar in next year's awards. She has Child's physicality down pat - the ungainly height, sloping shoulders and high, fluting voice. The problem with the movie's imbalance is not so much casting (though it is a rare young actress indeed who can counter Streep's acting chops) but also its setting and story. 20th century New York pales in comparison to the lush, fabulous world of post-war Paris while Ephron's emphasis on Child's achievements far outweighs Powell's gimmicks.

In a departure from most slick and sexy Hollywood films, Julie & Julia is about two women not in the pursuit of men and marriage. Although marriage is the context of both stories, it is not the point of this movie. The point, really, is the joy of cooking and by association, of living. The movie shows up the xenophobia and sexism of the French cooking establishment in post-war Paris, most notably in the hilarious show-offs Julia has with the snooty head of the Cordon Bleu school she enrolls in. The narrative switches back and forth between stories, which contrast Child's and Powell's lives in two very different eras. Career women are shown up as bitchy and competitive in New York whilst Child's friends are supportive of her publishing dreams.

The other difference between the two women is the attitude of their husbands. Generally kind and loving, Child's husband dotes on her and her gastronomic obsession, and while Powell's man battles lobsters on her behalf in the kitchen, he does snap at one point and stalks out of the apartment, disappearing for days without contact. The suggestion is that perhaps women have paid a price for breaking the glass ceiling and that juggling career, marriage and a social life may not be the path to happiness for modern women. Ephron raises the question without ever exploring it, preferring instead of breeze through the movie and focus on beautifully shot scenes of glossy roasts and the colours of Parisien food markets.

Overall Julie & Julia is worth watching if just for Streep's performance and the mouth-watering scenes of food alone. As Julia Child always said bon appetit!

Learn more about this author, Peggy Tee.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.