"No mother-fu@#&^$!, I said all dark extra crispy! And send some of them noodle things with cheese! And make sure that the biscuits are hot! Beotch!"
Posted on 08/13/2009 9:54:35 AM PDT by Still Thinking
Plot Synopsis: Julie Powell (Amy Adams) plays a 29-year old Queens woman who works in some redevelopment corporation for remediation of 9/11 issues, who's bored with the job, and depressed with the stories she has to deal with. Her husband suggests she write a blog, but the only blog-worthy thing in her life is her work, which would defeat the purpose of blogging. She realizes she enjoys cooking and does start the blog with the intention of working through a Julia Child cookbook with about 500 recipes in one year. She posts the number of days and recipes remaining on the blog.
The rest of the movie cuts between scenes of Julie's next year and scenes showing Child (Meryl Streep) discovering an interest in cooking while her husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) is stationed in Paris as some sort of diplomat/intelligence officer following WW II. She learns to cook and struggles to write and edit a cookbook for Americans to cook French food.
Both women's stories are presented as true.
I think there are several references to Republicans and Eugene McCarthy in the movie.
Julia's sister comes to Paris to visit, and the two of them tell Paul that being from Pasadena their Dad expected them to marry Republicans and breed like rabbits.
Julie stays home from work one day and calls in sick because a special dinner she has prepared for the woman who originally discovered Child has been ruined. When she goes in the next day her boss, a weird looking guy who thinks her blogging is interfering with her work, admonishes her to quit and says that "if he were a Republican" he would have fired her.
The sister becomes engaged to an acquaintance of the Childs' and holds the wedding in France. Julia's Dad and Mom come and Dad get's in a slightly heated argument with Paul and Julia, because apparently the State Department has restricted the books the embassy may have in their library and Julia claims many have been purged from government service for "no reason at all". Being state, it wouldn't surprise me if they WERE commies.
Finally, near the end of his career, Paul is called home to Washington. He's expecting a promotion, but instead is grilled on his acquaintances and sexual orientation.
Definitely a chick flick but possibly watchable if you can get past the agenda politics, especially the way it's tacked on as an afterthought having nothing to do with the plot. I've explained it at length because that's what Free Republic is about, but all those scenes probably add up to three minutes or less in the movie, so if you would otherwise enjoy the movie, you can probably still watch it.
Coming soon to an airline near you.
Thanks for the review. Maybe I’ll rent it. I really like the acting Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. I think Julia Childs was a neat lady.
I think Nora Ephron is a pig.
As mentioned if I felt it was worth seeing I would go. The tacked on smarmy agenda insures I will not.
I was looking forward to seeing this. I thought that they would elaborate on her ties to the British secret service during WWII. I thought that it would be a fun movie as I have the two books that are featured, and I love watching her old taped TV shows....
I thought too, that the premise of a young woman baking Julia’s recipes and blogging on it very unique. But that too, turned out to be a flat soufle in the end.
I saw it on Tuesday. It was in my opinion a “half-baked” summary of Julia Child’s life.
It was slow, tedious, without any tension or story line. Then they bring in the McCarthy thing again...and present it totally wrong.
It was in short, terrible. I won’t recommend it to anyone.
Oh yeah, Meryl will get another best actress nom for her portrayal, but the screenwriting sucked wet sour dough.
My mom was planning to see this movie today.
Love Meryl Streep and Julia Child. For some reason I have never really responded to the set up of this book nor film. I would love however to read more specifically about Julia Child and see a movie about her life outright blessed free of contemporary Facist messages. Meryl is just brilliant overall.
"No mother-fu@#&^$!, I said all dark extra crispy! And send some of them noodle things with cheese! And make sure that the biscuits are hot! Beotch!"
Excellent and fun writing nikos1121! :-D.
Ping
Hollywood has already been harder on Republicans and Conservatives (not always the same thing) than they are on Communists.
Commie sympathizers and American loathers.
Julia Child worked for the OSS (predecessor to the CIA) during WWII.
Saw it last night. I think it merits about 2 stars.
Streep does an excellent job of playing a ponderous glutton with the most annoying voice in the modern cinema.
Equally ponderous were the smartypants digs at Republicans and conservatives. On reflection, I think that most of the movie was shot during the brief Obama honeymoon, before the reputation of the ‘Rats plunged to the level of whale dreck in the Marianas Trench.
Speaking of reflection, I was distracted by the glare of the studio lights off the male lead’s bald pate. My compliments to the gaffer and makeup crews.
The script mentions that the real Julia Child hated the yuppie secretary’s blog and thought it disrespectful. I’m inclined to agree with Mrs. Child.
Overall, like the burned beef bourguignonne, Julie and Julia left a bad taste in this FReeper’s mouth.
Ho hum.
I'm saddened by this and feel that Hollywood has insulted Dan Akroyd.
When the boss said to Julie that if had been a Republican, he would have fired her, I said, ALOUD, in the theater: “You can tell SHE’S a Republican because she’s AT WORK!” That line was totally inappropriate and irrelevan to the movie, and I could not let that one slip by. Ruined the entire movie for me.
Saw it last Friday. The slap at “Repulicans “ is SOP for the amerika haters in the America movie industry.
In view of the usual crap coming out of hollywood the film was done well and a delight to sit through.
We enjoyed it. and recomend it. Better than most these days.
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