The J's Have It

I never saw Julia Child on her old TV show. I was too young and I don’t recall it being broadcast on Philippine television. We had Nora Daza and her kids Sandy and Nina, as well as Sylvia Reynoso-Gala to regale us with their culinary expertise. We even had Martin Yan and the unrelated Stephen Yan back in the day. But it was Child, with her distinct voice, 6’2” height, and warm personality who was supposedly the first real chef who became a television star. All who would follow owed a debt of gratitude to Julia Child.

In the film Julie & Julia, director Nora Ephron presents two films that have a few things in common: specifically Julia Child and French cuisine. We see Julia (Meryl Streep) and husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) adjusting to life in Paris in the late 1940s while she tries to find something that she really enjoys doing. Meanwhile in 2002, Julie Powell (Amy Adams) is accompanying her own husband Eric (Chris Messina) in moving to Queens from Brooklyn. While working out of a government cubicle, Julia decides to start a blog by writing about her experience with Child’s masterful book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Even as we are shown Child learning the ropes of French cooking herself and the long ordeal to get her book published, Powell sees her blog gaining an audience despite her initial misgivings.

What more can I say about Meryl Streep that hasn’t been written or said before? She truly is one of the finest actresses ever, and her performance as Child was spot on. Reuniting with her The Devil Wears Prada co-star Tucci (this time as husband and wife), the two actors have such amazing chemistry together, you literally feel them syncing with one another as actors and as spouses on film. The very pretty Adams was already deglamorized as a nun for her last film with Streep, Doubt. Here, she’s not as breathtaking as she usually is, but that’s probably to keep the focus on the food and her struggles as someone with serious dreams of being a real author. Her own scenes with Messina are pretty strong, especially when she’s on the verge of giving up her blogging due to the stress it entails.

Ephron veers away from her usual romantic comedic tendencies for Julie & Julia. She somehow finds a way to merge these two stories of two different eras into one coherent and fluid piece. Though Streep and Adams have no scenes together, the writing is so tight and pacing so well thought out that I didn’t find myself getting bored at any point during the screening. Based on Child’s book My Life in France and Powell’s Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously (the result of her blog), I didn’t feel any real disconnect as the two stories just synced.

Powell’s story, in particular, got my own creative juices flowing as I was once more inspired to get in front of a keyboard and write something down. I may not have Julia Child as a role model and I may not commit to writing about a subject like food for 365 days, but this film clearly touched a nerve for me that I hope to continue tapping in the future. Writing about anything that you like can’t be a chore. It has to be fun because otherwise, there is no point in getting yourself to write about it. So whether I write about sports, or a book, or a movie like Julie & Julia which I highly recommend, I hope that I have as much passion for it as both Powell and Child did when they wrote their respective works.