# "Julie and Julia" Blu-Ray review



## Richard W. Haines (Jul 9, 2007)

I am not the ideal choice to review this film. It's a 'chick flick' which is a genre
I'm not partial to. Director, Nora Ephron is a feminist and the movie is from that 
perspective which alienated me...by intention. The males in this story are irrelevant
to the plot and thier sole job is to back up and support the female protagonists'
ambitions. The polar opposite of most conventional dramas. 

As others have noted, this is the first movie to be based on a blog. It takes
place in two time periods which are paralleled thematically which was clever
structurally.

The 'story' or what there is of it shows a young Julia Child in Paris during the fifties 
laboring over the publication of her French cooking book while a woman named 
Julie attempts to make all of her recipes from it in the year 2002 while chronicling it on a 
website. Sound dull? Well it probably will be for most male viewers but my female 
family members really liked the picture and enjoyed the characterizations. I will
say for such a thin premise the movie does hold your interest for most of the running
time although it did seem rather long at 2 hours and 3 minutes. Meryl Streep does 
a convincing impression of Child. She certainly sounds like her and they used high 
heels and other visual tricks to make you believe she was the real life Amazon sized 
personality rather than the petite actress she is in real life. Amy Adams is "Julie"
and she's attractive and perky.

The performances are fine and period locations convincing. I have absolutely no
interest in cooking French meals but Ephron was able to maintain a narrative momendum
without any action which took some skill. Unfortunately, the food on display made my
stomach upset. I could almost feel my arteries clogging watching those globs of butter 
dripping over the entree. Although Child lived to be 92, I wouldn't recommend eating too 
many of her meals if you want to retain your cardiovascular health. Keep some
Tums and aspirin handy when you watch this movie.

Aside from that problem I resented the occasional Republican bashing that had
no place in the narrative and was just thrown in to be 'politically correct'. It was tacky and
inappropriate. I'm not surprised it was included though since among Ephron's
three husbands was Carl Bernstein of "Watergate" fame. He made a career out of 
biased 'journalism'. Unless a movie is about politics it's wise to leave this type of 
partisan posturing out of it because it dates the movie very quickly. 

The technical specs are okay. The image is sharp but there is no attempt to create
a different visual design between the two time periods it takes place in.
The 5.1 sound is very limited since most of the movie is talking heads which comes out
of the center speaker. In fact that is probably my other main objection to the movie. It lacks
any sense of style which could've made it more appealing to a larger demographic.

I recommend this movie to female viewers and some males who find French cousine or Julia
Child interesting. Others might find it mildly entertaining but otherwise forgetable.

Film buffs who prefer action oriented movies will probably shut it off after the first ten 
minutes so use your judgment.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Good Review Richard, I viewed this on BluRay with my wife last night and even though defiantly a 'chick flick' I found it quite entertaining and had me laughing a fair bit. I do recommend this to anyone who has a girlfriend or is married as its not that bad at all.


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## Richard W. Haines (Jul 9, 2007)

tonyvb,

An interesting thumbs up, Tony. You're basically saying it's not as
awful as you thought it would be. I'll agree with that. But I wouldn't
want to sit through it again.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Agreed, This is a rental not something I would watch again.


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