Julie & Julia (2009)

Director:

Nora Ephron

Writers (WGA):

Nora Ephron (screenplay)
Julie Powell (book)

Release Date:

7 August 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Passion. Ambition. Butter. Do You Have What It Takes?

Plot:

Julia Child's story of her start in the cooking profession is intertwined with blogger Julie Powell's 2002 challenge to cook all the recipes in Child's first book.

Plot Keywords:

Cook | Blogger | Cooking | Book | Recipe

Cast

Meryl Streep	...	Julia Child
Amy Adams	...	Julie Powell
Stanley Tucci	...	Paul Child
Chris Messina	...	Eric Powell
Linda Emond	...	Simone Beck
Helen Carey	...	Louisette Bertholle
Mary Lynn Rajskub	...	Sarah
Jane Lynch	...	Dorothy McWilliams
Joan Juliet Buck	...	Madame Brassart
Crystal Noelle	...	Ernestine
George Bartenieff	...	Chef Max Bugnard
Vanessa Ferlito	...	Cassie
Casey Wilson	...	Regina
Jillian Bach	...	Annabelle
Andrew Garman	...	John O'Brien

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language and some sensuality.

Runtime:

123 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #44272) | Ireland:12A | Mexico:A | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Argentina:Atp | Norway:A | Singapore:PG | Portugal:M/12 | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Germany:o.Al. (f) | New Zealand:M | UK:12A | South Korea:12 | Japan:G | Australia:M (original rating) | Australia:PG (re-rating on appeal) | Sweden:Btl | Hong Kong:IIA | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB)

Filming Locations:

Astoria, Long Island City, Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures

Trivia:

Eric Powell's quote ("I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by") was originally made by Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). Eric explains this himself, immediately after delivering the line.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The scene involving Paul Childs photographing a food display in their kitchen, he uses a Rolleiflex camera. While shooting he winds the crank approximately one-and-a-half turns, when loaded with film the transport only requires 2/3 of a turn and stops automatic. So actually he was using an empty camera.

Quotes:

Julia Child: These damn things are hotter than a stiff cock!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "De wereld draait door: (#5.34)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Minor Swing

Julia and…

When an actor plays a real-life character, I always hope they will capture the physical essence of a person I admire, the tone of a particular voice and its speech patterns (that is, for line readings that make us forget there's such a thing as "line readings"). A good actor can usually give us something that's good enough. But, this time, watching Meryl Streep as Julia as she stands at a table with her classmates at Le Cordon Bleu; as she sits down to dinner with her husband, Paul (Stanley Tucci), the two of them really enjoying each other and their food-goes beyond mere acting. Streep isn't playing Julia Child here, but something both more elusive and more truthful -she's playing my idea of Julia Child.

"Julie&Julia," directed by Nora Ephron, is only half a movie about Julia Child. Ephron adapted the script from two sources: Child's posthumously published 2006 memoir "My Life in France" and Julie Powell's entertaining memoir -from which the movie gets its name - a recounting of the year Powell spent cooking every recipe in Child's 1961 classic "Mastering the Art of French Cooking. " In "Julie & Julia," Powell (played by an always perky Amy Adams) toils by day as a government employee but, in her evenings at home in Queens, N.Y., gives her life meaning by wrestling with the challenges of boning duck carcasses and murdering lobsters. In between recipes, she squabbles with her long-suffering husband, Eric (Chris Messina), commiserates about her life troubles with her surly friend Sarah (Mary Lynn Rajskub) and sits down at the computer to blog about it. Through it all, we wait for the payoff, and eventually we get it.

Contrast that with the other subject of "Julie & Julia": A strapping, cheerful 6-foot-plus California girl who, in the late 1940s, moves to Paris with her beloved husband and immediately falls in love with her new country and its food, embarking on an adventure that will ultimately change the way Americans think about food, HURRAH. Which story sounds more interesting to you? Or, as Julia would say, "To yooooooooooou?"

Ephron shows a surprising degree of grace at navigating us through the movie's shifts between eras and places. If nothing else, the movie's clockwork rhythms give us something to look forward to: When Adams' excessive chirpiness and whininess start getting to us, we know there's always Julia, waiting for us in France.

If you love food, eat before you go to see the movie. The aftermath will be challenging enough. I saw this with a friend who is a passionate cook, he rushed home and prepared a mega serving of Beef Bourguignon for me.