Last night, hubby and I curled up on the couch after a long day and decided to watch the movie Julie & Julia (2009), directed by Nora Ephron, who also wrote the screenplay and co-produced the film. After I started this healthy living blog, several people (on different occasions) asked me if I had seen this film. The title of the film was vaguely familiar to me, but I hadn’t seen it yet because I was too busy preparing for my wedding when it came out last summer!

Seeing that I love food and have been really getting into blogging recently, I figured it’s time to see this film and review it on here. This is not a film that will catch you off guard: the plot is very predictable from the outset. Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams) is a secretary stuck in a boring job answering phones post-9/11 at a call-center in Manhattan, who decides to start a cooking blog to pursue her passion for food and cooking. To keep herself accountable, she publicly gives herself a yearlong assignment of cooking every recipe (524 of them – including boning a duck!) from Julia Child’s cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking (published in 1961), and blogging about it. The film is characterized by a parallel plots structure, showing intermittent scenes of Julie’s story and Julia Child’s story (set in 2002 and 1950s – respectively), thereby highlighting similarities that bind the two women together,  as well as the personality traits that make them unique.

Though predictable, Julie & Julia is definitely a feel-good movie. Julie’s enthusiasm for cooking and for blogging is inspirational and easy to identify with. Meryl Streep is as talented as ever - she does an impressive Julia Child impersonation, which is fun to watch. Something that bothered me though was the discrepancy and the gap between Julia Child’s vibrant, carefree world in France and Julie’s dreary, claustrophobic life in NYC. Also on the downside, the other characters are uninteresting and underdeveloped, apart from Paul Child (Julia Child’s husband), played by Stanley Tucci. Julie’s husband, Eric Powell, played by Chris Messina is reasonably well acted, but also an underdeveloped character. The dialogue – especially between Julie and her girlfriends – is flat, choppy and uninspired. Although concerned with an innovative concept (I’ve never seen a film about blogging before), the plot on the whole is not the most exciting…

But, I have to say that the men in this film – especially Paul Child – are depicted as the most supportive and loving husbands that could ever exist. Aside from a little squabble between Julie and her husband, the film is almost free of tension between the respective couples – which is refreshing (albeit a bit unrealistic?) to watch.

The camera work was definitely top-notch – Sherif even commented on the quality of the photography in the film, and the scenes in Paris were especially visually appealing. The food also looked delicious in most of the scenes (with the exception of the shot of the sink disposal – gross!).

All in all, this film gets a B- rating in my book. Nora Ephron had a great idea for a film – however, the development of the plot and the characters left much to be desired. Despite these setbacks, I really enjoyed the “lesson” learned from the film: anyone who has a dream and persists to achieve it is rewarded in some way for his/her hard work, creativity, and dedication. For me personally, even if the only “success” is personal growth and enjoyment, I’m all for putting forth one’s best effort!

Here is a shot of my favorite scene in the film – when Julie celebrates her accomplishment of making 524 recipes in 365 days!

If you’ve seen Julie & Julia, what did you think of it? If you are a successful or aspiring blogger, how did it make you feel?

You may also like:

Going Minimalist: Don't Miss Out on LifeThe Quest for Natural Hair CareMy week off ;-)An Active Day in the Sun & Mango Berry Smoothie