Julie & Julia pt. 2

I reviewed Julie & Julia by Julie Powell here a few months ago and this week managed to see the big-screen adaptation, directed by Nora Ephron and starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams as Julia Child and Julie Powell, respectively. I won tickets to a screening given by Duckworth Publishers who have commissioned My Life in France, the memoir by Julia Child that the film is also based on.

As one of my first promotional events hosted by a publisher, this was a very chic one held in the Sony Screening Room in Central London with free drinks, nibbles, film, and copies of the memoir! We had such a fun night and my boyfriend (who is assuredly in touch with his feminine side and confessed lover of "chick-flicks") LOVED the movie as did I. Thank you to Duckworth for the opportunity.

Where the novel Julie & Julia is obviously top-heavy in its concentration upon Julie Powell's blog experiment -524 recipes from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days- Julie & Julia is an equal examination of Julie, the aspiring writer and amateur cook and Julia, who is at the time learning to cook in Paris and who later becomes a published writer, in her own right. The year in each of their lives is alternately shown and cleverly paralleled, in their cooking successes and failures, their burgeoning writing career, and both their marriages. The synchronicity in their stories is well achieved and emphasised onscreen.

The aspects of the reading experience that I didn't enjoy so much: the dryness at times of the recipe descriptions and the relentless coarseness of Julie, were absent in the film experience. I found the same funny bits still hilariously funny (the lobsters scene and the Powell's cat especially) but it was the Julia Child parts of the film, those taken from the book I haven't read -My Life in France- that I enjoyed most. Meryl Streep embodies the character of Julia Child and is incredibly engaging, heart-warming, and highly amusing. I loved her trials and tribulations and, although interested in the cooking, was engrossed in Julia (and Julie's) attempts to write and publish; with a demonstrable interest in the publishing industry, those parts were illuminating to me.


Above all this is a heartwarming film with two highly intriguing female characters. It isn't often where you can say that the film version is better than the book but this one had the advantage of being based on two books, which definitely helped. I look forward to reading my copy of My Life in France by Julia Child to discover more about a fascinating woman. As you probably know from reading my blog, I seldom read non-fiction, biographies, or memoirs but this one excites me; Meryl Streep imbued Julia Child with such warmth, humour and pathos, that I want to know the real Julia Child in her own words.

I also plan to read the novel Heartburn by Nora Ephron, who directed the film as well as wrote the screenplay adapted from both Julie and Julia's memoirs. Heartburn is also, coincidentally, a cookery-orientated book and a Virago Modern Classic; it is one I had forgotten about until I persuaded Verity to buy it on our bookshop trip, and thought it only fair that I read my own copy to compare notes. If either My Life in France or Heartburn are as witty and heartwarming as the film version of the character from one and the creation by the writer of the other then I am in for exceptionally engaging reading. Have you read either? would you like to after having seen the film, Julie & Julia, or from reading my review?