::sigh::
I really loved this movie. I got to see it earlier this week at a preview screening sponsored by the My33 Movie Club (thanks, Ardis!) and I instantly fell in love with the film. Meryl Streep is simply charming and endearing as the renowned Julia Child, and Amy Adams couldn't play the role of Julie Powell any better. Both are outstanding actresses, but I can't lie, Streep impressed me more. Why?
I love Streep, but I think she is a little overrated. She plays a wonderful love-to-hate bitch, but nice, warm characters just don't seem to fit well. I mean, did anyone else see Mamma Mia!? I guess that was just an exception, because Streep brought Child to life and made her warm, charismatic, real, and very, very loveable.
As for Adams, as always, her characterization was flawless. A great actor always engages her audience in such an intense way that the viewer suspends belief, and completely forgets there is an actor. So does Adams in her role as Julie Powell. I believed her frustration with her "friends;" her desire to be a good person; her inner conflicts and insecurities; her love for cooking and writing and Eric.
I assure you I am no cook, and though I do love to eat (although my options are limited to vegetarian choices), I loved this movie because it hit home. Because it showed what it's like to want something that other people may think is crazy; and doing it...against all odds.
The movie is also very much about love, and I am sucker for love. Plus, it had a lot of comedic scenes. If you are completely unaware of the plot line it goes a little like this:
First of all, yes, it is based on two true stories (they always do make for the best stories, don't they?)...One chronicles the life of Julia Child--an American who becomes trained in French cuisine while her husband is on assignment in Paris. And the other of Julie Powell, a frustrated writer stuck working in a cubicle who loves to cook...Julia Child's recipes.
While viewers get a taste of how Julia got to publish the recipes in her lengthy cookbook, Julie challenges herself to do every recipe from Child's cookbook in exactly one year and document her experience via a blog, The Julie/Julia Project.
I wholeheartedly recommend this movie to everyone.
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