Food, happiness and lovemaking are combined in this cheerful movie. A combination of the true stories of two women separated in time and space, it features the incomparable Meryl Streep as Julia Child, famous American cookbook author and TV presenter (of 50’s and 60’s cooking programs) and a young woman author, played with authentic, vivacious power by rising young star Amy Adams.
The last line spoken in the movie is “I love you, Julia Child” by the latter. Julie, played by Adams, is a young woman who decides to pursue an ambitious goal – that of cooking every recipe (530 I think) in only one year from the famous cook book created by Child thirty or so years earlier to teach American women how to prepare French food. She also sets out to write a daily blog about her experiences, as she struggles through the book, learning how to be an accomplished cook and collecting a significant following on the way. She is captivating as she experiences emotional rises and falls (crashes, actually) during the daunting journey from nervous amateur to accomplished cook.
Streep is good, as usual, faithfully re-creating the shrill-voiced, very tall Doyenne of the mid-twentieth century American kitchen, but her character lacks the sheer lovability of the younger woman, who renders an Oscar-winning performance.
The husbands of both women adore and support them through their trials and tribulations. Both likeable characters, they are not quite the ‘power behind the thrones’ but they are definitely the wind beneath their wives’ wings.
Nora Ephron is the Director of this enjoyable movie – she is known for both her humour and her empathy. Though she is unlikely to achieve artistic greatness, she is going from strength to strength and could well garner awards for Best Picture here. The settings are great (mainly Paris and New York
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