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BY MAGGIE SCOTT<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span>In the introduction to her 1999 cookbook collaboration with the celebrated French chef, Jacques Pepin—\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Julia and Jacques:Cooking at Home\u00e2\u20ac\u009d—the legendary American chef Julia Child wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Food is not only our business but our greatest pleasure, and we think its preparation should be a joyful occupation. <\/span>Of course, cooking with two is far more lively than cooking alone, but when you know pretty well what you are doing, the food itself is your companion.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n \n <\/span>Film director and writer Nora Ephron knows something about being in a joyful occupation; and in her new dramady, Julie and Julia<\/em><\/span> she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got some pretty lively \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cooking\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of her own going with boon companion Meryl Streep pulling off a formidable<\/em><\/span> portrayal of Julia Child \u00e2\u20ac\u0153before she was Julia Child.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/span>Ephron has written greatness for Streep before: the real life characters of Nora Ephron in Heartburn<\/em><\/span> (about her breakup with journalist Carl Bernstein) and Karen Silkwood, the martyred corporate whistle blower, in Silkwood<\/em><\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>What makes Julie and Julia<\/em><\/span> such a savory dish is not just Ephron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s having, according to Streep, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the perfect bon mot<\/em><\/span> to toss off\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6effortlessly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/span>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ephron cooking up a delicious balancing act blending her adaptations of Child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s memoir of her early years in Paris and Julie Powell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Julie and Julia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d about her year of cooking and blogging about cooking her way through Child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ground-breaking work, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mastering the Art of French Cooking.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Although the scales clearly tip Julia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way as far as being the meatier story, Ephron sagaciously recognized the parallels in the particulars of her characters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 journeys:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Julia turning her love of eating and desire not to be thought of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153as a frivolous housewife looking for a way to kill time\u00e2\u20ac\u009d into the pursuit of a deep knowledge of the classic art and science of cooking; and Julie turning her love of cooking and desire to finally learn to finish something she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s started into an audacious challenge to finish not just 524 recipes but to finish a daily blog about her experiences, whether finger-licking-good or scrape-into-the-disposal bad. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Julia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s odyssey starts in 1949, when she and foreign service husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) are relocated to Paris, and she swoons over a restaurant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s preparation of sole meuniere. <\/span>Tired of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153government work,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and searching for the answer to the question of what she should do<\/span> with herself, Julia takes herself off to Le Cordon Bleu school of cooking, requesting \u00e2\u20ac\u0153harder\u00e2\u20ac\u009d classes as the only woman in a kitchen-full of male GI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>From Brooklyn in 2002, Julie (Amy Adams) follows her husband to 900 square feet over a pizza parlor in Queens, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s closer to his job and decides to make the connection between the writing she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to make a living at doing and the cooking she knows represents the best of herself and the bliss it can bring herself and her husband. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Although the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153companion\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Child speaks of in her introduction to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Julia and Jacques\u00e2\u20ac\u009d book that cooking becomes to Julie eventually causes a rift between her and her husband, in contrast, Julia and Paul are devoted soul mates: she, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153butter to his bread;\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153breath to her life.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/span>He is there for her when she begins the long process of putting her knowledge and skill onto the pages of a book which will convince and inspire the average person in the average kitchen that she or he can whip up a souffle, flip an omelet, mold an aspic or bone a duck. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Streep believes she has \u00e2\u20ac\u0153captured\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Child—her joie de vivre<\/em><\/span>—and she is absolutely right; without caricature, even as this gleaming actress seems possessed by the mischievous spirit of the rather dowdy giantess (6 foot, 2 inches) with the hooty, slightly-starved-for-air voice. <\/span>Adams and Julie suffer in comparison, even though they have the good fortune to share more screen time with mouth-watering food than Streep and Julia do. <\/span>Although it leaves you hungry for a film devoted entirely to Julia, Ephron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concoction is a splendid feast sure to layer a cornucopia of accolades over itself<\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY MAGGIE SCOTT In the introduction to her 1999 cookbook collaboration with the celebrated French chef, Jacques Pepin—\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Julia and Jacques:Cooking at Home\u00e2\u20ac\u009d—the legendary American chef Julia Child wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Food is not only our business but our greatest pleasure, and we think its preparation should be a joyful occupation. Of course, cooking with two is far […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n