Nora Ephron’s adaptation of two books connected to the life and teachings of the chef Julia Child is an often hilarious yet a bit overly long tale that overall is quite the success in the end and carries one of the finest performances of the year.
Julie Powell is a wannabe writer. Having written half a novel and never got around to finishing it, she is now living a life in a cubicle and at home in a nine hundred square foot studio apartment in Queens with her husband. While the couple is happy, Julie dreams of more and hopes to follow through on something once in her life. Enter Julia Child’s book Mastering the Art of French Cooking and a goal of preparing every recipe in the book over the course of the year while blogging about her experiences online. Julie’s story is intercut with Julia Child’s first adventures into cooking and her success along the way both professionally and personally as her relationship with her husband Paul takes center stage. We follow the two as they move through their lives and their paralleling of sorts works us towards Julie’s deadline to finish all the recipes in the book. [Read more...]