......starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams with my sweet wife and lovely daughter and we all enjoyed it for it's fine acting and accurately drawn comedy.
However, I found less to enjoy about the story line and screenplay.
There just wasn't enough here to completely satisfy me.
It was pretty much a one trick pony or actually a two trick pony for me since two parallel stories were intertwined.
The Link
If you enjoyed, as I did, other recent movies starring one or both of these two fine actresses, "The Devil Wears Prada," "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" or "Doubt," you'd probably like this flick too.
I liked all those films better.
This movie's been out a while and wasn't high on my list of ones I wanted to see.
However, I took my girls as a treat and they really dug this combo foodie fest/chick flick.
Streep was excellent and very funny as Julia Child, but so was Dan Aykroyd back there on TV's SNL and a little of Julia Child goes a long way.
Nevertheless, Meryl's comedic characterization made me chuckle often.
Adams was very good too, still her character's portion wasn't worthy of half a movie to me.
I will compliment Amy's part by saying it had the good content value of a couple of decent Mary Tyler Moore Show episodes.
Sometimes screen writer/director Nora Ephron gives us a movie with either more story or more depth.
Here, for me, her double barreled effort came up somewhat short, although it was quite well-aimed.
Ephron based this flick on a book that the real Julie Powell wrote about her blog reported challenge to prepare all of the recipes in the real Julia Child's French cooking book which she wrote for Americans.
Julie's year long culinary quest is interwoven with vignettes from Child's life, letters and memoirs.
Given this niche situated subject matter, I thought it came out pretty well.
It's very often funny and it's clever, but probably not enough of a full movie meal for casual viewers.
Sometimes it had a delicious taste, though.
Streep's portrayal of Julia Child, especially, was quite satisfying and even filling, for a while.
Adams deserves and, I believe, could handle bigger roles......even serving as the main course in carefully selected future flicks.
The screenplay emphasized how both of these chicken stuffing, lobster killing, duck boning, sauce serving, stir conscious, ladel loving ladies first looked toward French cooking to discover more meaning in their mundane lives, how their husbands were mostly supportive, how everyone overcame various difficulties and finally how each simmering authoress dreamed of and struggled getting her book published.
But, as the film explained in turn how one and then the other went through their very similar crises, this movie congealed a bit too much for me.
I realize that parallelism in their lives was the whole point of what was being dished up here.
So, I just think the cinematic cooking could have used a little more wine.......or, as was suggested several times in the movie, more butter.
Actually, I believe it took a skillfully written adaptation and pretty good makings to have this movie's recipe turn out as tasty as it did and I fully appreciated that.
But, lack of drama, little conflict and only the tiniest bit of spice simply won't allow me to recommend this flick to anybody except big fans of Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and/or Julia Child.
Stanley Tucci and Jane Lynch were really good also in this partial feast that we three enjoyed for what it was.
After intake and digestion, the main ingredients and pony tricks were all pretty good, with more than enough there to nourish several good sitcom episodes and/or a Saturday Night Live skit or five, but the fare was simply neither varied nor filling enough when served as a whole movie.
However, I found less to enjoy about the story line and screenplay.
There just wasn't enough here to completely satisfy me.
It was pretty much a one trick pony or actually a two trick pony for me since two parallel stories were intertwined.
The Link
If you enjoyed, as I did, other recent movies starring one or both of these two fine actresses, "The Devil Wears Prada," "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" or "Doubt," you'd probably like this flick too.
I liked all those films better.
This movie's been out a while and wasn't high on my list of ones I wanted to see.
However, I took my girls as a treat and they really dug this combo foodie fest/chick flick.
Streep was excellent and very funny as Julia Child, but so was Dan Aykroyd back there on TV's SNL and a little of Julia Child goes a long way.
Nevertheless, Meryl's comedic characterization made me chuckle often.
Adams was very good too, still her character's portion wasn't worthy of half a movie to me.
I will compliment Amy's part by saying it had the good content value of a couple of decent Mary Tyler Moore Show episodes.
Sometimes screen writer/director Nora Ephron gives us a movie with either more story or more depth.
Here, for me, her double barreled effort came up somewhat short, although it was quite well-aimed.
Ephron based this flick on a book that the real Julie Powell wrote about her blog reported challenge to prepare all of the recipes in the real Julia Child's French cooking book which she wrote for Americans.
Julie's year long culinary quest is interwoven with vignettes from Child's life, letters and memoirs.
Given this niche situated subject matter, I thought it came out pretty well.
It's very often funny and it's clever, but probably not enough of a full movie meal for casual viewers.
Sometimes it had a delicious taste, though.
Streep's portrayal of Julia Child, especially, was quite satisfying and even filling, for a while.
Adams deserves and, I believe, could handle bigger roles......even serving as the main course in carefully selected future flicks.
The screenplay emphasized how both of these chicken stuffing, lobster killing, duck boning, sauce serving, stir conscious, ladel loving ladies first looked toward French cooking to discover more meaning in their mundane lives, how their husbands were mostly supportive, how everyone overcame various difficulties and finally how each simmering authoress dreamed of and struggled getting her book published.
But, as the film explained in turn how one and then the other went through their very similar crises, this movie congealed a bit too much for me.
I realize that parallelism in their lives was the whole point of what was being dished up here.
So, I just think the cinematic cooking could have used a little more wine.......or, as was suggested several times in the movie, more butter.
Actually, I believe it took a skillfully written adaptation and pretty good makings to have this movie's recipe turn out as tasty as it did and I fully appreciated that.
But, lack of drama, little conflict and only the tiniest bit of spice simply won't allow me to recommend this flick to anybody except big fans of Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and/or Julia Child.
Stanley Tucci and Jane Lynch were really good also in this partial feast that we three enjoyed for what it was.
After intake and digestion, the main ingredients and pony tricks were all pretty good, with more than enough there to nourish several good sitcom episodes and/or a Saturday Night Live skit or five, but the fare was simply neither varied nor filling enough when served as a whole movie.
