Julie & Julia
Dir: Nora Ephron
2009
**
I'm 50/50 on Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia. I loved the Julia Childs half of the story but loathed the Julie Powell half. Meryl Streep was perfect casting, I wasn't aware of Julia Childs before this film but after watching a few clips on the internet, I totally get it (if you're interested, the British equivalent was Fanny Cradock, a very different character but equally entertaining). Stanley Tucci was also on top form too, the two of them making quite a lovely pair and it was very sweet to see them together on screen. Amy Adams on the other hand was not so enjoyable to watch. This is where I'm fuzzy though. Was it a bad day in the office for Adams, a great actress who so far hasn't had a bad performance in my opinion or is the actual Julie Powell as annoying as she is portrayed? If you go up against Meryl Streep you will always come out second but I don't think that was the problem here, maybe it was Nora Ephron's writing/directing that was the problem? I dislike most of her films, Bewitched being one of my least favourite films of all time. I think it's more likely that the problem is that while Julia Childs is/was a much loved personality with an interesting story, Julie Powell just isn't. There was nothing special about what she did, if anything, she rode on the back of Childs success. It's a sad reminder of the modern world we live in, people get successful off of other peoples work. It's funny though, I see by other peoples reviews that they felt let down by the anticlimax of the film, where I on the other hand (without spoiling it for others) loved it. Maybe it's the sadist in me, but to be honest, I found Julie Powell very unlikable and it beggars belief how successful she's become by being such a vampire. If they'd stuck purely with the Julia Childs story this could have been brilliant, making it quite a painfully wasted opportunity.