In late-1940s Paris, Julia Child (Meryl Streep) is the food-loving wife of her U.S. government employee husband in search of something to do with her time. In post-9/11 New York, Julie Powell (Amy Adams) is a frustrated employee of the Manhattan Development Corporation who ends every day burdened by her lack of power to do much of anything and lamenting her unfulfilled dream of being a writer. While decades apart, when Julie decides to cook her way through Julia’s cookbook, the two women’s stories come together to tell a tale of pursuing passions, discovering dreams, and learning what it is that actually gives life meaning. And so begins the film Julie & Julia.
Based on both Julie Powell’s book Julie & Julia and Julia Child’s autobiography My Life in France, Julie & Julia almost equally splits its time between the story of Julia Child’s journey from bored embassy wife to iconic cook and Julie Powell’s path from frustrated office worker to published author. In each of their journeys, each woman finds both inspiration and encounters obstacles. At the end of it all, both women are rewarded with dreams fulfilled and efforts rewarded. But although the two stories run parallel to each other, and Julia’s story is set up to serve as an inspiration for Julie’s own contemporary journey, for all their similarities, they are quite different.
For more reasons than the simple reality of her near-cartoonish character, Julia Child is not only the more entertaining character of the two but the one whose story is easier to connect with, more inspirational, and, in turn, more memorable. In contrast, Julie’s half of the movie simply falls a bit short, somehow failing to reach the same emotional depth, and, in the end, coming to a conclusion that seems to entirely miss the point that Julia’s captures so well. The main difference between the two women’s stories? While both achieve a measure of success that recognizes the talent and value within each woman, for Julia, central to that value is every person who has shared in her journey, but for Julie, (at least as it is portrayed in the movie) that value is most definitely centered on herself.
From Julia’s first cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu until the long-awaited moment she holds her now legendary cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in her hands, her story is one that is almost driven forward by relationships. The reason for her move to Paris in the first place and the man who continually encourages her to pursue what she loves, Julia’s husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) is so full of genuine encouragement, faith, and love for his wife, when Julia asks Paul, “What if you hadn’t fallen in love with me?” you can’t help but wonder if she actually would have become Julia Child without him. Although Julia is definitely an enterprising and assertive woman in her own right, it is through her relationships with her eventual co-authors Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle that she even begins down the path of cookbook creation. When their book continues to run into snags, it is through the help of Julia’s long-time pen pal and editor, Avis De Voto, that the project continues on. When the book is finally taken on by Alfred A. Knopf publishers, it only because editor Judith Jones takes the time to give it a chance and test out the recipes herself. And from the first day Julia starts writing her cookbook until she holds it in her hands, while her story is certainly driven forward by her desire to achieve such a dream for herself, over and over again she reminds us and others that it is first and foremost for her readers, so that American woman can essentially share the same joy she finds every time she cooks.
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