The J&J Movie: A Feast for the Eyes, the Mind and the Soul

I’d see it all over again.

Highly recommend it and suggest you don’t go hungry.

Julie & Julia is an absolutely wonderful, feel-good film, full of humor, heartache and a glimpse of two women, each with high hopes and perseverance to accomplish tasks they set out to fulfill. Both dealt with the ups and downs, each struggled in their own way, but had the support of loving partners to cheer them on and give that boost when needed.

There isn’t a movie out there with Meryl Streep in it that I don’t devour. The woman can play any role and convince me she is the person she’s playing. Using her voice in Julie & Julia, her talent assured me Julia Child was on the screen.

Brief synopsis: Julie Powell – a real person who lived in Queens and worked in an office as an administrative assistant felt her life was drab and pointless. She decided to undertake the task of making every one of Julia Child’s recipes in her book, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Not crazy to take that on, but Powell did so in the course of one year and the book holds 524 recipes. That’s 1.44 recipes every day of the year!

And she blogged about it!

Cooking isn’t difficult for those with some experience, and I have some of that, but I’d be fooling myself if I thought I could accomplish this. What? With Child’s training and practice, I’d be lost before getting started. French cooking isn’t terribly hard - although you must master some major skills and it is time consuming if following Child's instruction.

The movie is interspersed with the story line from Child’s autobiography, “My Life in France,” and jumps back and forth from Child’s 1940’s Paris to the current time-frame with Powell’s story.

I often worry about the hype a movie gets and rarely go see them on opening weekend. I don't usually take the critic's word for it, either good or bad and worry that I'll be disappointed and only the good scenes make it to the commercials.

I had been reading all the articles in the New York Times, hearing the stories on NPR and with my obsession with The Food Network, was seeing trailers for the movie, over and over and over again.

I have to admit, this one was simply delicious! I was wrapped up in it from start to finish and so were my companions who went with me. All three of us were bowled away by the performances of Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina.

YOU HAVE TO SEE IT! Take your mother, take your sister, take your best friend. Go and enjoy.

Check it out here - www.julieandjulia.com/