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Julie & Julia |  | Director: Nora Ephron
Actors: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina, Linda Emond
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Category: Movie
This item is no longer available
Rating:  352 reviews
Sales Rank: 3039
Genre: Comedy
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: Video On Demand
Running Time: 124 Minutes
ASIN: B002VXKYCS
Theatrical Release Date: August 7, 2009
Release Date: December 8, 2009
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| Synopsis:
Julia Child and Julie Powell - both of whom wrote memoirs - find their lives intertwined. Though separated by time and space, both women are at loose ends... until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible. |
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 352
 Streep Was Spot-On Julia Child, Blogging Accurately Portrayed September 4, 2010
Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Man (Spartanburg, SC)
I'm gonna make a confession right up front--I LOVE anything that Meryl Streep is in because she is one of the most underrated actresses in cinematic history. Her genius is an uncanny ability to dive so completely into a character that you can't help but see the person she's playing rather than the actress. That's the sign of an incredibly talented person and Streep hits on all cylinders in JULIE & JULIA like she did in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA.
For those of us who didn't know how Julia Child became such a world-renowned household name, this film gives you the back story about how her husband moving from city to city as a disgruntled government employee gave her time to pursue things that interested her. While she tried her hand at a variety of subjects while living in Paris, France, she eventually came to the realization that cooking was her real passion and began pursuing it. From high-level training in a prestigious cooking school to being approached by a couple of flaky potential cookbook authors to collaborate on an English cookbook with French recipes, Julia constantly went after the dream--bringing French cooking to Americans who didn't have servants to cook for them. Thus was borne what would become one of the most significant culinary figures of our time whose impact is still felt today.
JULIE & JULIA simultaneously runs the story of a 9/11 government group employee named Julie who got inspired to do something with her life in 2002 when she set her sights on cooking her way through all of Julia Child's 500+ recipes in the span of one year--and blogging about it! As a writer, she felt compelled to share everything with her readers ("whoever you are") about her cooking ups and downs during this yearlong journey. I could so relate to this Julie character since I blog for a living and so many of the things that were discussed in this movie about having a blog are absolutely true. Julie got her big break when The New York Times did a big feature story on her blog and that's when the publicists, book publishers, television shows, and more all began contacting her with opportunities that went on to become a book and then this magnificent film.
My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed this movie (and we knew we would) for our special date night and highly recommend it to bloggers, foodies, and those of you who are curious about the rise of a real legend in the history of cooking named Julia Child. WATCH THIS MOVIE!
 Hooray for Julia, Boo Hiss on Julie! So-so movie. September 2, 2010
mermaid (USA)
Meryl Streep did very well in her role as Julia Child. She was a dead ringer, for sure. If only this movie could've been made as a biopic for Julia Child only. I would've enjoyed that very much, and it would've been a far more interesting movie.
Quite frankly, I could've done without seeing the antics of the Julie Powell, whiny chica who was attempting to ride Ms. Childs's coattails. At first, when watching the movie, I couldn't understand why Julia Child disregarded her. Then I finally read Julie's book and viewed her blog, so now I completely understood why Julia Child blew off Julie and her insipid blog and cooking "stunt." Anyone who read Julia Childs's book knows that Julia's life was far more interesting. She was no victim of circumstances. She had gumption, vision, she took the bull by the horns and when she was disappointed in something or when things didn't go her way, she didn't go falling on the floor in a meltdown like Julie did. I wanted to smack the Julie character when I saw that!
Amy Adams did the best she could with the material she was given. I don't fault her for having to play the emotionally immature Julie Powell. The screenwriter does deserve some credit for actually making that 'sow's ear' into a reasonable fascimile of a silk purse. Those who plowed through Powell's whiny tome will know exactly of what I speak.
I thought Stanley Tucci did an excellent job portraying Paul Child, Julia's husband. As for those complaining about the politics in the movie and the way it was portrayed, I think that is an unfair thing. It's good to see a movie that does deal with the way McCarthyism impacted the lives of regular people, not just celebrities.
Still, despite its flaws, I think the movie is worth watching, as long as you don't expect too much.
Half of a pretty good film. August 29, 2010
L. E. Cantrell (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
There really isn't much to add in the 350th Amazon review of "Julie & Julia," so I'll limit myself to one observation.
Not long after "Julie & Julia" was released, another film hit a few screens with, alas, no appreciable effect. It was "Me and Orson Welles." In both films a much larger than life character was brilliantly portrayed by a character actor. In both films, half the screentime was devoted to a younger nonentity. Has the appreciation of the movie-going public held by Hollywood's movers and shakers fallen so low that they believe that big characters and big acting can only be approached through the intermediation of on-screen nobodies?
Get the DVD. Enjoy Streep and Tucci. Sleep through the agita and tsouris of Whats'ername playing Julie. Leave the TV set and get yourself a snack, preferably something from Julia Child's book, whenever that abominable, knuckle-dragging, talks-with-his-mouth-full, clod married to Julie befouls the screen.
Five stars for the Julia part of the film. Zero stars for the Julie part. Two-and-one-half stars overall; call it three.
LEC/AmUS/08-10
 Books turned into movie souffle was overcooked August 25, 2010
Kurt Carmichael (Cleveland, OH USA)
This movie is a conflation of two books, Powell's "Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously" and Child's "My Life in France". While the premise of the movie is that Julia shares synchronicity with Julie, the fact that both occupied apartments, made love and enjoyed cooking does not seem to square with the fact that Julia's apartment was in Paris while Julie's was in Queens, Julia wore a robe while Julie wears t-shirts and that Julia was trained at the Cordon Bleu Academy while Julie has no training in the culinary arts.
Toward the end of the movie we find out that Julia actually distastes Julie's quest for fame through her blog of Julia's cookbook. Hmmm, they aren't so synchronous after all! No surprise, these are two very different people with very different motivations, living in different eras. The only thing that strikes a chord is the search for meaning by both Julia & Julie, other than that the movie is a complete waste of time. I especially disliked the prosaic interjection of Hollywood stereotypes of Julia drinking martinis, hosting diplomatic parties, always eating in French restaurants and chain-smoking while eating--but never having time to write her book! Also, when the plotline gets thin for Julie, the director resorts to rock music, a sex scene or Saturday Night Live clip to spice things up. [Where, for instance, is the actual footage of Julia on television?] Give me a break!! The producers/director seem to want us to be sold on our degraded modern lifestyle to make it seem that Julia was not so different from us, rather than belonging to the 40's and 50's. A terrible mish-mosh of cultural stereotypes, politically correct speech ("anti-Communists are all bad..."), misplaced values and landscapes.
Great film! August 23, 2010
Bookreader79424 (Earth)
If you are feeling blue and down in the dumps because you're always working and never have any fun, then this is the movie for you!
This film is about a woman, who is bored with her career and her extremely successful and well-to-do friends, so she decides to start cooking!
Her inspiration? Julie Childs' cookbook, of course!
Her objective: cook all the recipes in 365 days and blog about it!
This is an excellent and fascinating movie--set in two different time periods!
I highly recommend it! You'll be glad you bought it!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 352
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