Julie & Julia

Julia Child is apparently a cultural icon in America and France for her contributions to cookery. As I'm not gastronomically inclined, I'd never heard of her, nor the book Julie & Julia that was written by Julie Powell after undertaking to make every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child's bestselling book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in a year.
 
I imagine adapting one book for the screen is a challenge, but writer-director Nora Ephron chose to tackle three: Julie Powell's book, Julia Child's recipe book and the book that Child co- wrote with her great nephew Alex Prud'homme. As a 'foodie' herself, Ephron knows the subject material and has made many of Child's dishes and her passion is clear.
 

The challenge of showing how Julia and Julie became involved in food and came to write the books that would change their lives is a big one and Ephron uses a twin narrative to show Child moving to France and graduation from the Cordon Bleu as Powell and her husband relocate from Brooklyn to Queens and Julie, sick of her mundane job and successful Friends, decides to write a blog as she works her way through Child's 524 dishes.
 
The similarities between the two women is striking as both work or worked as government secretaries - Child in the OSS and Powell for the lower Manhattan development corporation - both have supportive husbands and love food and cooking, feeling the need to share their passion with a wider audience. The two time periods are interesting, with the Julia section taking place in post World War Two France and the Julie half set in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
 
Intertwining these two very different, but also very similar stories, works much better than I thought it would as Ephron cuts very cleverly so you meet the characters at similar junctures in their lives. Although the two women never share the screen, Julia is always present in Julie's life and the closest they get is when Julie see's her idol on the television (plus Dan Aykroyd's fantastic impersonation of her on SNL) but, late on in the film, Julie receives a phone call with news of Julia's reaction to her blog.     
 
I don't really care much about food, don't watch cookery programmes or read recipes books so am probably as far away from the target audience as you can get, yet I thoroughly enjoyed Julie & Julia. The two central performances, by Meryl Streep and Amy Adams are superb, especially Streep who really captures the larger than life (literally, with Child been 6' 2"!) nature of her subject with her phenomenal voice and mannerisms. After watching the film, I had a look at some clips of Julia Child on YouTube and it is amazing how Streep resembles her, not only the voice but physically.  In the supporting roles, Stanley Tucci is a wonderful foil for Streep, all nuance and quiet encouragement whereas Chris Messina is a bit more vocal as Julie's husband and there are memorable appearances by Jane Lynch as Julia's sister and Mary Lynn Rajskub, who plays Julie's best friend.

The Disc

 
Extra Features
The commentary by Nora Ephron is a little dry and gappy and probably could have benefitted from another speaker, either a producer or cast member, but is still worth a listen as what she has to say is interesting.
 
The making of, Secret Ingredients: Creating Julie & Julia, is a well designed and revealing piece with enough information in the 27 minutes to show you how things were done without it becoming tedious.
 
The other extra features are all about, or feature, Julie Child with a lengthy piece about her containing interviews with family and friends, a piece about how the Smithsonian  Institute bought and installed her kitchen in the museum (Yes, she was apparently that important) and numerous cooking clips from her TV appearances.
 
You can also watch the film with movieIQ  which causes the real recipes to appear, along with other trivia and notes about the cast and crew - a welcome addition.
 
The Picture
Julie & Julia is a beautifully shot film by someone with a firm grasp of how to use mise-en-scène to maximum effect.  It is wonderfully constructed and lit and the set decoration, costumes and other work by the art department really helped to immerse you in the film with the recreation 1950's France quite exceptional.
 
There were numerous tricks to make Meryl Streep taller as she is 8 inches shorter than Julia Child and all of them are subtle and work very well, from stacked shoes to small furniture which creates a forced perspective. Amy Adams also underwent a makeover that makes her look quite a bit like Jane Fonda in Klute!        
 
The Sound
Whilst not a film to really make demand on your sound system, this comes with a wonderfully balanced DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack which perfectly delivers the dialogue and the score. The surround speakers are not overly used, but create a find sound stage with all the nuanced sounds.
 
There are French and German audio options, plus a wide selection of subtitles and an English audio descriptive track.   
 
Final Thoughts
I enjoyed Julie & Julia a lot more than I thought I would.  The film is intelligently written and shot, with a star performance by Meryl Streep at its centre but well supported by the rest of the cast. It's a case of 'You don't have to know about Julia Child but it helps' for both the movie and the extras where fans of her work will find much more to enjoy than someone who has never heard of her.   
 
It's a funny and thoughtful film that is utterly endearing, even to gastronomically challenged horror fans like me!