Julie & Julia (2009)

A young woman (Amy Adams) in a government job decides to write a blog about the experience of cooking every recipe in MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING by Julia Child (Meryl Streep) in one year's time. Her story is interweaved  with the story of Julia Child's life in France in the 1950s and her beginnings as a cook and writer. The last film of writer/director Nora Ephron, JULIE & JULIA is only half successful. Try as she might, she can't make the contemporary story very interesting. It's not the fault of the likable Adams or Chris Messina who plays her supportive husband. Every time the film shifts to the contemporary story, I longed to be back in France with Child and her husband (Stanley Tucci) who are much more interesting characters, we want more of them. Still, the movie has its undeniable charms and yet another marvelous Streep performance. She manages to give us a seemingly authentic Julia Child and not a Julia Child imitation. I suppose I shouldn't complain, half a good movie is better than none. With Jane Lynch, Linda Emond, Frances Sternhagen, Deborah Rush and Helen Carey.