Recommendation: 'Julie and Julia'

(Images sourced from Google Images - eonline.com, cablecarcouture.com, haveuheard.net)

If you’re a blog lover, a film lover and a food lover, I have just the thing for you...the movie ‘Julie and Julia’.

A unique film in that it’s based on not one but two true stories and as you watch, you realise that the stories are told separately from different times however link and relate throughout. One half is told by Julia, an American in Paris during the 1950s who discovers a love of cooking. After excelling in her classes and thinking of food every minute of every day, she teams up with two French women to write a cook book. You see her journey, her life and a very eccentric, slightly odd but hilarious character played by Meryl Streep (and an appearance from Glee’s Coach Sue!).


Over in 2002 America we see Julie, a young married writer who’s stuck in a miserable job answering calls from the 9/11 victims having never made it in her dream career. To relieve her from boredom and to keep her sanity intact, she embarks on a task of cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’. A somewhat hefty task with 542 recipes which are to be cooked in no less than a year! She keeps a blog to document her progress and to allow her to write again. Unbeknown to me before watching, this character is played by Amy Adams whom I fell in love with from her role of Giselle in ‘Enchanted’- *ahaa, ahaa, ahaa*...

What struck me most with this film (and I’ll try to tell you with a minimal amount of spoilers) was the reaction to Julie’s blog. She started off very slow with no followers, just like you and me but then interest started developing and she would be so happy and excited when a comment popped up or she received a parcel from a follower. Gradually it took off and she came home one day to have received 65 answer phone messages from some very important people!


This was my favourite part because I was watching a scene that I hope will occur in my life in the future. The way she was so unsure of herself and bewildered at the interest in her was quite inspiring and made the ending that much more powerful.

I know how amazing the feeling is to have your work accepted and appreciated, even wanted but cannot imagine how it would have felt to be the real-life Julie when she pressed that answer phone button. I bet words cannot describe it! Hopefully one day I’ll find out...