Julie & Julia 美味關係

The film intertwines the real-life stories of two utterly different women; Julia Child (Meryl Streep), the pioneering TV chef who demystified French cuisine for American homemakers; and call center employee Julie Powell (Amy Adams), who blogs her attempts at cooking all 524 recipes in Child's classic cookbook "Mastering The Art of French Cooking.” The premise — a major motion picture featuring a story about a blog — is a novel one.

Powell and Child are from different generations, and lead entirely divergent lives. But while Child is whipping up Boeuf Bourguignon in post-war Paris where her diplomat husband, Paul (Stanley Tucci) works, Powell struggles to come to terms with her new life in Queens alongside husband Eric (Chris Messina), and is less than thrilled at the size of her new kitchen. She works in a government call center as a “drone,” whereas the Childs live in downtown Paris in an upscale apartment that Julia rightly describes as “Versailles.”

But the personal crises of each woman – relocation forced upon them by their husbands' careers — unite the parallel storylines. Both Powell and Child lack something vital in their lives, and each turns to cooking to fill that void. Child is inspired by her love of eating and enrolls in a cooking school, while Powell, attempting to escape her government job to chase her writing dream, starts a blog. And so Powell's ambitious experiment in recreating all of Child's recipes in a year's time is born.

We soon discover, predictably, that Child is a wonderful cook, thoroughly entertaining and inspiring. It's evident why Powell loves Child. In fact, Meryl Streep's performance of Julia is phenomenal, right down to her distinctive voice.

Her presence is far greater than her actual 5 foot-9 inch frame suggests; using low camera angles and cleverly designed sets, Ephron makes her appear to be Child's towering 6 feet-2 inches tall. She's a tall, loud American woman — think Big Bird from Sesame Street. Her relationship with husband Paul, positively bursting with joie de vivre, is enthralling to watch. Ephron highlights parallels between the two characters' relationships, portraying Powell and Child as two happily married but professionally unfulfilled women who find their true calling through food.

Yet the film has several faults. The plot seems more interesting on Child's side than Powell's; the young New Yorker's life ends up a pale reflection of Child's more interesting story. Also, the pace of the film is slow, and runs out of steam, with a pointless, tacked-on subplot about Julia's sister visiting. In addition, parts of the story are left unfinished, such as when the book publisher fails to show to dinner.

All in all this is a thoroughly enjoyable movie and worth watching. It's not as predictable as your standard romantic comedy, despite the fact that the audience knows how “Julie & Julia” will end, as they're watching the movie. I would suggest one thing though: don't watch this on an empty stomach.

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