Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Julie & Julia - DVD Review


***

Starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina, Linda Emond, Mary Lynn Rasjkub, Jane Lynch, Frances Sternhagen and Vanessa Ferlito.
Directed by Nora Ephron.

Had this just been about Julia Child, it would have been delightful, buoyed by Meryl Streep's beaming performance. But there is this other half based on blogger Julie Powell (Amy Adams), and Julie Powell is not as interesting as Julia Child. But sitting through the Julie scenes is worth getting to the Julia scenes. After all, there is good food to be made!

The movie parallels their lives, the small successes, the minor letdowns and obstacles, and it's a tribute to their wills to persevere despite whatever's thrown in front of them. In that way it's an ideal movie about American individualism. Streep deserves another nomination for her work here (and maybe she just might finally win her third Oscar for this), and Adams, let's say, does her mousy best.

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