Julie & Julia
Aug. 25th, 2009 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI've always felt bad for not liking Nora Ephron's films more. It's not like female directors are thick on the ground, so I feel like I should appreciate her - but I don't; I particularly loathe You've Got Mail, which took all the sweetness of the film it's based on (The Shop around the Corner, which is fantastic) and stomped it into the ground. Perhaps I've just been watching the wrong part of her filmography?
So I approached Ephron's new movie, Julie & Julia, with trepidation, and was pleasantly surprised. It's by no means a great movie, but it's fast-paced, it features lots of lovely images of food, and really, it's just hard to lose with a story as interesting as Julia Child's.
Although the movie is based on Julie Powell's memoir Julie & Julia, the movie is really more about Julia Child then Powell (whose sections in the movie seem to serve as a framing device for Child's). It's a good decision: Powell's memoir is interesting, but very internal and thus difficult to transfer to the screen, whereas Julia Child's life is fascinating and enormous and well worth a movie.
Also, it lets Ephron cut out Powell's wince-worthy asides about Republicans, who she puts on about a level with cockroaches.
Many of Ephron's changes from book to screen were good, but they did let her introduce her...peculiar...gender politics. One of the early scenes involves Julie going out to lunch with her bitchy high-status 'friends.' "Is it normal not to like your friends?" she asks later. "Men like their friends," her husband replies. But women, apparently, only like their friends if they're abnormal.
I would find this scene less annoying if it wasn't a) a total departure from the book (Powell loves her friends almost as much as she loves her husband), and b) totally unnecessary; her dead-end job and crappy apartment and rocky relationship with her parents all showed her need for the direction in life created by cooking her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
I can't give either the film or the book four stars, but neither is a waste of time. The film is good for a rainy day - France and food and Julia Child! - and the book, although it will probably appeal to a smaller audience, is a solid and engaging memoir.
So I approached Ephron's new movie, Julie & Julia, with trepidation, and was pleasantly surprised. It's by no means a great movie, but it's fast-paced, it features lots of lovely images of food, and really, it's just hard to lose with a story as interesting as Julia Child's.
Although the movie is based on Julie Powell's memoir Julie & Julia, the movie is really more about Julia Child then Powell (whose sections in the movie seem to serve as a framing device for Child's). It's a good decision: Powell's memoir is interesting, but very internal and thus difficult to transfer to the screen, whereas Julia Child's life is fascinating and enormous and well worth a movie.
Also, it lets Ephron cut out Powell's wince-worthy asides about Republicans, who she puts on about a level with cockroaches.
Many of Ephron's changes from book to screen were good, but they did let her introduce her...peculiar...gender politics. One of the early scenes involves Julie going out to lunch with her bitchy high-status 'friends.' "Is it normal not to like your friends?" she asks later. "Men like their friends," her husband replies. But women, apparently, only like their friends if they're abnormal.
I would find this scene less annoying if it wasn't a) a total departure from the book (Powell loves her friends almost as much as she loves her husband), and b) totally unnecessary; her dead-end job and crappy apartment and rocky relationship with her parents all showed her need for the direction in life created by cooking her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
I can't give either the film or the book four stars, but neither is a waste of time. The film is good for a rainy day - France and food and Julia Child! - and the book, although it will probably appeal to a smaller audience, is a solid and engaging memoir.
