Weekend Cooking: Julie & Julia Movie Review

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. To see who else is participating go to Beth Fish Reads, Weekend Cooking, here.

I watched the DVD of Julie & Julia with my husband a few weeks ago. I had read the book the movie is based on with the same title Julie & Julia by Julie Powell last summer before the movie was released. You can read my review here. The movie blends the story of Julie Powell and Julia Child's life as told in the book My Life in France by Julia Child. I haven't read Julia Child's book yet. I have a copy on my bookshelf and look forward to reading it. The best part of the movie for me was Meryl Streep's portrayal of Julia Child. Her acting was superb and she was very believable and I enjoyed the focus on her life. I didn't realize that she was such a passionate woman and had a very strong marriage. Stanley Tucci played the role of her husband which made for great chemistry between the two.

In all honesty, my husband and I enjoyed the parts focusing on Julia more than the focus on Julie. Since I had read the book, I was familiar with the story of Julie's project to make all the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She would do this in a year and write about her experiences in a blog. As a blogger, I loved this part and I think most bloggers would as well. The focus she had on wanting to know that there were actually people reading her blog, the excitement when she got her first comments and the realization that she had readers that supported her and were interested in reading her blog posts. Amy Adams portrayed Julie's anxieties and emotional side quite well. Although, I found her a bit too sweet compared to what I perceived of Julie through reading her book.

The food and cooking was another highlight of this movie. I enjoy foodie books and movies so I enjoyed the focus on food and cooking. You can find Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon Recipe that was featured in the movie as it has been made available to download by the book’s publisher, Knopf Doubleday. You can check out this link at delish.com, the authors have come up with versions of the recipes in the movie. I would definitely recommend this fun and enjoyable movie to foodies and bloggers and fans of Julia Child and Meryl Streep.



Disclosure: My copy of this movie on DVD was borrowed from the library. I am an Amazon associate.