Review: Julie and Julia

Review: Julie and Julia

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 74%

Another great date movie. Especially for married couples. Yes, the movie is about a young woman, at loose ends about her life, who decides to introduce structure and discipline by recreating all the recipes in Julia Child's Art of French Cooking in a one year period. Layered in her story are slices of Julia Child's life in the decades after World War II when she was trying to find her own life's vocation. You've probably heard that Streep's performance as Child is a tour de force and absolutely delightful. It is. Indomitable Meryl portrays a woman of such infectious optimism, confidence, and complexity, we find ourselves fantasizing that we had been a guest at one of her dinner parties. Oh yes, there's the food too. Child did have something to do with transforming the way Americans shop for, prepare, cook, and consume food.

There's all of this, but the most poignant and effervescent moments of the movie are found in the portrayal of Child's relationship with her husband, played by Stanley Tucci. It is a marriage in which each partner shares equally in caring for the needs of the other -- equally in passion, love, and healthy independence. Unfortunately, there's one lingering effect of the movie: you will have an overwhelming desire for an expensive French meal as soon as it's over.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price
$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it