What’s the old saying? Too many cooks spoil the broth? In the case of Julie & Julia, one too many ingredients have spoiled the main course. Writer/director Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail) based the parallel stories of her film on two different memoirs, Julie Powell’s Julie & Julia and Julia Child’s My Life in France.
Amy Adams is Julie Powell an aspiring writer who now works at the call center for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the folks in charge of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center. She handles calls that range from the heartbreaking (a woman mourning the death of a loved one) to the asinine (uncouth complaints about the designs). Her job is completely unfulfilling and it doesn’t help that her more successful friends constantly rub her nose in their upper class lifestyles. Why is she friends with them, then? I don’t know. Julie finds a creative outlet when she decides to blog about her attempts to make every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Meryl Streep is Julia Child, a former OSS clerk transplanted into Paris when her husband, Paul (Stanley Tucci), is assigned to the American embassy. Julia struggles to find something meaningful to do while her husband works. Hat making and bridge won’t cut it. She eventually enrolls in cooking school and, despite objections from the arrogant Madame Brassart (Joan Juliet Buck), becomes an accomplished chef. Julia begins teaching other expatriates the wonders of French cuisine and hopes to edify more by putting together Mastering. She finds the road to publication paved with skepticism as her husband faces the looming specter of McCarthyism.
As much as I love Amy Adams, the Julie Powell storyline make up the weakest sections of the film. It’s all paint-by-numbers or should I say, cooking-by-numbers? Her character is never fully developed enough to the point where we become emotionally involved in her efforts. There’s the predictable collapse under pressure and argument with husband, Eric (Chris Messina). Of course, there’s never any tension about a potential break-up because we know they’ll get back together by the third act.
The Julia Child component of Julie & Julia is written slightly better, but it’s elevated to immense heights by the performance of Meryl Streep. With 15 Oscar nominations (and 2 wins) under her belt, Streep is assured another for 2009. She is complimented by a brief, but memorable, appearance by the ultra-talented Jane Lynch as Julia’s sister, Dorothy. Streep brings the character to life rather than doing a mere imitation. It really makes me wish that they had just done this as a straight Julia Child biopic. As it stands, Julie & Julia spreads itself too thin, leaving both stories underdone.
Rating: **
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