“Julie & Julia”

 

Reviewed 5 August 2009 by Ted Faraone

 

3 ½ stars on a scale of 0 to Five.  $9.00 ticket on a scale of $0 to $12.

 

NORA EPHRON AND MERYL STREEP REUNITED

 

“Julie & Julia” reunites Meryl Streep and Nora Ephron, who successfully collaborated on Ephron’s roman a clef, “Heartburn,” in 1988.  This collaboration is almost as good, largely due to Streep’s ability to channel legendary chef Julia Child, not just play the role.

 

In case anyone has been living under a rock, “Julie & Julia,” based on two true stories, chronicles the attempt by blogger Julie Powell (Amy Adams) to cook her way through all 500 plus recipes in Child’s seminal 1961 cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” in just one year and blog about it.  Powell, a writer who works at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the entity that deals with the aftermath of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, where she answers phones, is turning 30 and has never finished a literary project.  She was the belle of Amherst with so much literary promise.  Her friends are obnoxiously successful.  One of them skewers her in a New York Magazine profile. 

 

In a parallel plot, which is far more compelling than Powell’s, Child’s dozen year quest to launch herself as a French chef is told.  Streep has an amazing ability, similar to Larry Olivier, to turn herself into a role both physically and vocally.  She carries pic.  Husband Paul Child is ably played by Stanley Tucci.  The chemistry between the pair beguiles.  Child, who died in 2004 at age 91, was not physically beautiful, but as a personality she was beyond attractive.  Anyone who saw “The French Chef” on PBS knows this.  Pic opens with the 1949 arrival in Paris of the Childs where Paul is attached to the US Embassy.  Julia needs something to do, and she loves French cuisine.  She enrolls in the professional class at the Cordon Bleu.  The rest is history.  Featured in many of the Paris scenes is a remarkable 1949 four-porthole, wood-bodied Buick station wagon.  “When Better Automobiles Are Built Buick Will Build Them,” the slogan went.  Less pleasant but equally compelling is ex-OSS Paul Child’s battle with the crowd around Senator Joe McCarthy.  The combination of Child’s upbeat personality and Streep’s ability to convey her ebullience is a winner.  Pic soars when Streep is on screen.

 

Pic comes back to earth where Powell is concerned.  Amy Adams is attractive as a girl next door who can’t be mistaken for a boy.  Powell, however, has a tendency to whine.  Adams nailed it.  Yes, it’s part of the drama, but it’s annoying.  It clearly annoys her husband, Eric (Chris Messina).  One has to give Powell, on whose book pic is partly based, credit for honesty in the telling, but here a little creative license could have helped.

 

Another factor working against pic is length.  Billed as a drama, this is a PG-13 rated comedy, with a trace of profanity.  You can take the kids.  But at 123 minutes, pic bogs down at about the three-quarter pole, particularly in the Powell scenes.  It would not have hurt helmer/screenwriter Ephron to stick to Woody Allen’s dictum that a comedy should not run more than 100 minutes.

 

Back to the story… Powell’s blog attracts a following.  A feature in The New York Times brings her to the attention of publishers and TV producers.  But this is more than rags to riches.  There is a love story in “Julie & Julia,” and it is never resolved.  It’s the love that Julie develops for her mentor and role model.  It’s a little bit of real-life ambiguity that could have benefited from some Hollywood tinkering.  A little more drama between Julie and Eric might have helped, but pic needs cutting, not stretching.

 

Tech credits excel.  Editing by Richard Marks gets straight to the point.  Original music by Alexandre Desplat adds to the ambiance, and Stephen Goldblatt’s lensing is more than up to the task.  Production design (Mark Ricker) deserves a note.  Much of pic is a period piece and not even in France does that period still exist.  Finally, two notes on voices:  Mary Kay Place does an unseen star turn as Powell’s mom in Abilene, Texas, heard only on the phone.  Margaret Whiting’s recording of “Time and Again” is a special delight.

 

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Right, from top:  Amy Adams & Chris Messina on set; Adams in character; Streep as Child at Cordon Bleu; Adams out of character not being mistaken for a boy; Tucci and Streep in character.