anything meryl streep touches turns to gold. so it would surprise me if her latest film ‘julie & julia’ doesn’t perform big. she always shines best when she’s immersed in character. this time, she becomes cooking extraordinaire julia child. but the flick is more than just a biopic on the late great chef. it intertwines the true story of unlucky-in-life julie powell (amy adams), as she embarks on a challenge to cook her way through julia child’s ‘master the art of french cooking.’
the movie flips back and forth through time between child’s journey as a chef & powell’s journey to self-discovery. the 30-something powell created an online blog, the julie/julia project, in which she catalogs the 365 days of recipes.
HOWEVER, upon some research into the true story of the two ladies, it appears there is a bit more to the story. turns out, the real-life julia child was not a fan of julie powell at all! judith jones, julia child’s editor and friend had this to say: “child did not approve of powell’s cook-every-recipe-in-one-year project. julia said, ‘i don’t think she’s a serious cook.’ flinging around four-letter words when cooking isn’t attractive to me or to julia. she didn’t want to endorse it. what came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt. she would never really describe the end results, how delicious it was, and what she learned.”
innnnteresting. i’m sure for the sake of the box office, movie producers failed to include that detail. regardless, it will be worth it just to see meryl be meryl and kill it on-screen. the movie premieres august 7th.
