Monday, August 3, 2009

A Movie Review

It should really come as no surprise to any of you that if you throw Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Stanley Tucci in a movie together, it's Hollywood Gold for me. Throw in Julia Child and I'm officially slain.

I was lucky enough to catch a screener of Julie and Julia last night, and if you couldn't tell from my intro, I simply adored it. The movie was clever from the beginning, truthful and touching throughout, and delightfully funny. It probably took me the first half of the movie to not giggle everytime Meryl Streep did Julia's peculiar accent. She didn't do it in a making fun of her way, she just had it down so perfect that I [and many others] couldn't help but laugh! 

I've realized that I am probably one of few in my group of friends who actually watched Julia Child's cooking show growing up [the best ones were with Graham Kerr- anybody? Bueller?]. My grandfather was a couch ridden former cook and that meant two things; we watched sports and we watched The Food Network. And that was it. For those of you who never watched Julia Child on television, she has this somewhat goofy accent- think Martha Stewart'ps on steroids. But where Martha's comes off snooty [I still love you boo], Julia's is nothing but charm.

It was a bit strange to see Meryl and Stanley Tucci playing husband and wife [and at one point I told MJ that the movie seemed like a strange dream sequence from The Devil Wears Prada], but those two have such an incredible on screen chemistry that they should really never do a movie without each other- or without Amy Adams. While she never actually shared screen time with Meryl and Stanley, it still felt like an ensemble cast where they each played off of each others acting skills. 

It was nice to get the background on Julia Child's life, to see how courageous and groundbreaking she truly was- and how silly! This movie made me want to move to Paris and go to cooking school [Joseph I'm looking at you], it made me want to write, it made me want to read [for those who dont know, this movie is based on a true life story, which was blogged about, which was then turned into a book, and now a movie- and there are evidently collections of letters that Julia and Paul wrote to their friends. Dear Borders, here I come], it made me want to go to New York, it made me want to eat! Lordy, I was sooo hungry when I left this movie! There was a hilarious scene involving Julia, her husband Paul, and a huge pile of onions. Ok, well that part didn't make me so hungry, but, well, you'll see. Hilarity ensues. And whoever the fellow was playing Amy Adams husband was soooo adorable. Yum.

Go see this movie. It is definitely worth the $15 that it will inevitably cost you [gotta have movie snacks fo sho]. It is very family friendly [despite 1 "f" word, and 1 mention of the male anatomy] and one I might take my mom to. Now that's a true seal of approval.

My Verdict: Go See it This Weekend!

As always, thanks to ET and The Nashville Scene [even though they gave my Le Creuset French Oven to someone else ;)].

2 comments:

Evan said...

You're SO very welcome! Shoud've rigged the giveaway... I know ;) Glad you enjoyed it!

Joe Carlen said...

I've booked our flights to Paris...we start cooking school September 1. start packing.