Oliver warms to the sweet JULIE & JULIA on Blu-ray

By Oliver Pfeiffer / July 1, 2011

Sleepless in Seattle director Nora Ephron whisks up a treat, (so to speak) with this double entree of female culinary endeavors. Julie & Julia unfolds with parallel stories from two different eras; the first concerns eccentric middle-aged housewife turned true-to-life professional culinary expert Julia Child (Meryl Streep €“ a forever ogling Mrs Doubtfire/Hyacinth Bucket type) and her efforts to publish her €˜Mastering the Art of French Cooking€™ book in McCarthy era Paris. While the second involves present day 30 year-old New Yorker Julia Powell (Amy Adams €“ bright eyed, bushy tailed) and her challenge to dish up the aforementioned book€™s 524 recipes in just 365 days. Julie & Julia is available on Amazon from Monday 8th March. Both women are married to very supportive and patient men, (they would have to be!) courtesy of character players Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina respectively, who lust over their decidedly average looking leading ladies like they are smothered in dairy milk chocolate. Thankfully these sickly scenes don€™t deter from the delicious comedic thrust: a particular highlight comes from watching Streep€™s hilarious attempts to speed-chop an onion (and later unsuccessfully flip a pancake) during professional culinary classes. Streep is arguably the stronger performer with the better role here and is a treat (sorry) to watch, even if she begins to sound like a plastered version of Mrs Doubtfire after a very short spell. However her sheer delight upon arriving in Paris along with her ever-growing enthusiasm, are really infectious and, thanks to sumptuous location shooting, you can really smell the delicious sights on offer. Adams is nice and confident but pales in comparison, taking on a character that is far less interesting and far more overtly self-centered. Her daily blog musings are a Sex and the City throw back, which highlights stuff we already know and ironically adds little in terms of closer character identification. As a result you occasionally wish that the narrative didn€™t keep flipping back to Adams€™, at times, depressing existence: taking calls from 9/11 family sufferers, an interfering mother and her relationship conundrums with her optimistic boyfriend. An exception to this is when Julie cooks up some of those mouth-watering culinary treats in her cozy roof top apartment; which include one of the funniest live lobster scenes filmed since Annie Hall.

Without the Streep scenes Julie & Julia could have ended up like a cheesy (sorry!) love worshipping feast with annoying consequences, luckily in director Ephron€™s deft-hands you do really start to warm to this sweet tête-à-tête tale. An enchanting and, dare I say it, inspirational film that is all about what it takes to find your way in the world and how people discover there inner selves through talent. As you can imagine with all these culinary treats on offer it becomes quite a hungry viewing experience, and its pretty funny too!