I found this film engaging and very enjoyable. It’s the story of Julie, a bored and rather flighty young American woman who decides to cook her way through a recipe book written by Julia Child a few decades earlier. Her husband persuades her to blog about it, and the blog takes off in unexpected ways.

The movie cleverly switches from Julie’s story to that of Julia herself, an American living in Paris trying to find ways to occupy herself. Meryl Streep is brilliant in the role; she seems able to turn her abilities to just about any character. Amy Adams as Julie was lovable if a bit annoying and over-emotional at times, and their two husbands were likeable too.

As much as anything the film is about food, and the art of cooking, with some wonderful looking dishes being prepared. The ending was perhaps a little sudden with no real explanation, but the DVD add-on with comments from the cast and director was very interesting.

Rated 12 in the UK, PG-13 in the USA, probably due to a few instances of bad language.

Recommended.

I agree in part with both previous entries (TajLV & MargieMay80) that Meryl Streep was brilliant and amazing as Julia and I too would have loved to see more of her in that character role. I also thought the Julie character came off as too whiny and just wanted to get up and take a beverage or potty break whenever it was her turn to dominate the screen.

I do understand Julie’s frustration though, for my husband has regularly prepared meals from the same cookbook for years now. While I may not be the one in the kitchen trying to master the art of french cooking, I AM the one in the dining room trying to master the patience of a monk waiting the 5 to 9 hours it takes my husband just to prepare one meal.

Needless to say I found the movie a bit unrealistic. Julie comes home from a full day at work and then proceeds to cook these complex meals? When do they eat…at midnight? Both my husband and I just looked at each other with that yeah right look.

It was a cute and light movie, but would have been better if it was titled “Just Julia” and then had been just that. Julia Child is fascinating enough to warrant a movie all to herself.

After all the Oscar hype, this was a bit of a letdown. Meryl Streep was brilliant, of course, but the two stories did not blend as well as they might have. For me, the star of the film was the food. I bet this movie helped sell a lot of cookbooks.

I could have watched her and the Julia storyline for the entire movie. The Julie character was less engaging . . . it was a neat and ambitious idea to blog about cooking her way through the cookbook but I think she came off a bit whiney. The Juila Child side of the story was fascinating . . . I never knew much about her married life or how she came to be such a dynamic diva in the kitchen.