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OTTAWA, Ontario / Ottawa Citizen / Movie Guide / August 7, 2009
THE JOY OF FOOD
By Katherine Monk, Canwest News Service
The ever-awesome Meryl Streep as Julia Child, the
American woman who championed French cuisine.
Photograph by: Columbia, National Post
Julie & Julia ***1/2
Starring: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina
Directed by: Nora Ephron
Rating: PG (coarse language)
Guaranteed to have you marinating in your own salivary juices thanks to its loving and altogether appetizing portrayal of food, Julie & Julia may well be the equivalent of celluloid ceviche.
The movie is a combination of tossed vignettes, each with its own distinct flavour and texture, but all serving a common cause as director and screenwriter Nora Ephron makes a great attempt at combining two very different life stories with as much elegance as the source material allows.
Blending Texas-born Julie Powell's 2005 book,
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, with Julia Child's memoir, My Life in France, Ephron begins with a solid emotional base: this is the story of two women on a quest for personal empowerment and a unique place in the universe.
For Powell, the downward spiral begins when she and her husband move into a small apartment over a pizza parlour. Drained and depressed by a job that has her listening to 9/11 sagas all day long, Powell feels like a failure when she measures her achievements against those of her power-suited friends.
Powell needs a purpose, and she eventually finds it in the pages of Julia Child's classic cookbook: Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Powell decides she will give herself one calendar year to make every dish in Child's buttery tome.
WHO WAS JULIA CHILD
Julia Child (August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author and television personality who introduced French cuisine and cooking techniques to the American mainstream through her many cookbooks and television programs. The French Chef which premiered in 1963 showcased her one-of-a-kind persona. Her most famous work is the 1961 cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
That current-era crisis opens the door to Child's story, and how the tall, big-boned wife of an American diplomat ended up becoming the reigning queen of French cuisine.
From an idle thought about her love and talent for eating to the eventual faceoff with the registrar at Le Cordon Bleu, Child's story is the central attraction in Ephron's zesty little film, which features great big stars.
With the ever-awesome Meryl Streep croaking out Child's New England falsetto, co-star Amy Adams in the role of Powell is at a clear disadvantage in the viewer's eye.
Not only is Child a much bigger, more entertaining personality than the Salon.com blogger who found worldwide fame by following Child's recipes, Child is also a lot more sympathetic because she seems kind, generous and able to laugh at her own failures.
Adams may be the most likable actress on the face of the planet at the moment, but the character of Julie Powell feels vain, selfish and obsessed by notions of peer-approving grandeur.
Powell's quest to reproduce Child's cooking isn't motivated by the same drive to explore the palate that pushed Child into the male-dominated classes of the Cordon Bleu. Powell just wants to make a name for herself as a writer -- some way or other.
Ephron should be commended for allowing this nastier side of the female puzzle into the frame, even if it taxes the sympathy factor, because it feels genuine and strips the mix of any overly fragrant girl schmaltz.
This is not a Ya-Ya Sisterhood of Travelling Elastic-waisted Pants.
Ephron cooks this up as a comedy first, and Streep slides into the tight nook between comedy and dark drama with expected ease. Wearing Child's intrepid expression every time she picks up a utensil and coos her way through the chest cavity of a duck, Streep nails Child's joy in the gastronomic moment.
When Child learns to cook the dishes she loves to eat, Streep's face lights up with rapturous delight and we can almost smell and taste the culinary fantasy unfolding before our eyes.
Combined with a surprising amount of political content centred on the McCarthy Era and the persecution of artists and writers, Ephron turns the Child half of the film into a fascinating dissection of social values and gender expectation, and who, exactly, belongs in the kitchen.
Powell's life problem is all too modern and shallow: She craves public affirmation and has no concept of others. She's a taker, not a giver, and her narcissism taints every scene. Her story simply can't match Child's.
The narrative imbalance leaves the movie listing to one side, but it also serves to honour Child by showing us how unique and inspired her achievements and her recipes were in the big buffet of life. [
rc]
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
The ever-awesome Meryl Streep as Julia Child, the
American woman who championed French cuisine.
Photograph by: Columbia, National Post
Julie & Julia ***1/2
Starring: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina
Directed by: Nora Ephron
Rating: PG (coarse language)
Guaranteed to have you marinating in your own salivary juices thanks to its loving and altogether appetizing portrayal of food, Julie & Julia may well be the equivalent of celluloid ceviche.
The movie is a combination of tossed vignettes, each with its own distinct flavour and texture, but all serving a common cause as director and screenwriter Nora Ephron makes a great attempt at combining two very different life stories with as much elegance as the source material allows.
Blending Texas-born Julie Powell's 2005 book, Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, with Julia Child's memoir, My Life in France, Ephron begins with a solid emotional base: this is the story of two women on a quest for personal empowerment and a unique place in the universe.
For Powell, the downward spiral begins when she and her husband move into a small apartment over a pizza parlour. Drained and depressed by a job that has her listening to 9/11 sagas all day long, Powell feels like a failure when she measures her achievements against those of her power-suited friends.
Powell needs a purpose, and she eventually finds it in the pages of Julia Child's classic cookbook: Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Powell decides she will give herself one calendar year to make every dish in Child's buttery tome.
WHO WAS JULIA CHILD
Julia Child (August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author and television personality who introduced French cuisine and cooking techniques to the American mainstream through her many cookbooks and television programs. The French Chef which premiered in 1963 showcased her one-of-a-kind persona. Her most famous work is the 1961 cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
That current-era crisis opens the door to Child's story, and how the tall, big-boned wife of an American diplomat ended up becoming the reigning queen of French cuisine.
From an idle thought about her love and talent for eating to the eventual faceoff with the registrar at Le Cordon Bleu, Child's story is the central attraction in Ephron's zesty little film, which features great big stars.
With the ever-awesome Meryl Streep croaking out Child's New England falsetto, co-star Amy Adams in the role of Powell is at a clear disadvantage in the viewer's eye.
Not only is Child a much bigger, more entertaining personality than the Salon.com blogger who found worldwide fame by following Child's recipes, Child is also a lot more sympathetic because she seems kind, generous and able to laugh at her own failures.
Adams may be the most likable actress on the face of the planet at the moment, but the character of Julie Powell feels vain, selfish and obsessed by notions of peer-approving grandeur.
Powell's quest to reproduce Child's cooking isn't motivated by the same drive to explore the palate that pushed Child into the male-dominated classes of the Cordon Bleu. Powell just wants to make a name for herself as a writer -- some way or other.
Ephron should be commended for allowing this nastier side of the female puzzle into the frame, even if it taxes the sympathy factor, because it feels genuine and strips the mix of any overly fragrant girl schmaltz.
This is not a Ya-Ya Sisterhood of Travelling Elastic-waisted Pants.
Ephron cooks this up as a comedy first, and Streep slides into the tight nook between comedy and dark drama with expected ease. Wearing Child's intrepid expression every time she picks up a utensil and coos her way through the chest cavity of a duck, Streep nails Child's joy in the gastronomic moment.
When Child learns to cook the dishes she loves to eat, Streep's face lights up with rapturous delight and we can almost smell and taste the culinary fantasy unfolding before our eyes.
Combined with a surprising amount of political content centred on the McCarthy Era and the persecution of artists and writers, Ephron turns the Child half of the film into a fascinating dissection of social values and gender expectation, and who, exactly, belongs in the kitchen.
Powell's life problem is all too modern and shallow: She craves public affirmation and has no concept of others. She's a taker, not a giver, and her narcissism taints every scene. Her story simply can't match Child's.
The narrative imbalance leaves the movie listing to one side, but it also serves to honour Child by showing us how unique and inspired her achievements and her recipes were in the big buffet of life. [rc]
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
