DeliciousBy John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee
"If no one's in the kitchen, who's to see?" Julia Child
I wonder if I don't use butter when I cook but overdo my olive oil,
will I be capable of reviewing well the entertaining and almost
spiritual foodie movie, Julie and Julia? Well I love spontaneous
cooking, so I'll make this review just as relaxed and inspired with too
much love of food and Julia Child.
Meryl Streep becomes Julia Child loving French cooking, at
home with fresh eggs, butter, and birds. I want Streep not to be as
good as she is so that other actresses may rise, but, alas, Streep
lives as Child in another certaim Oscar nomination. Amy Adams as Julie Powell is not as
accomplished as Streep (They never appear together in the film as they
did in Doubt); however Adams successfully, frequently, and irritatingly (in
character) serves as a foil to Child forty years later writing a blog about
spending a year going through every recipe in Child's renowned
Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Writer director Nora Ephron expertly parallels the protagonists' lives
right down to the loving and patient husbands. The cooking scenes are
integrated so well into the biopic that I thought the smell of rosemary
garlic chicken from my kitchen was theirs.
While I must complain that
the jumping from one time period to another can be disorienting, I
confess to being happy about a movie that makes me want to visit my
kitchen again today, watch Julia blow another recipe with wit and charm
on her French Chef TV program, and reread her book.
Bon App?tit.
John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee" John DeSando teaches film at Franklin University and co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain