Streep as Julia Child on TV

Meryl Streep is magnificant as Julia Child in the upcoming movie “Julie & Julia.” She has the trill, the bounce and exuberance of that Grand Dame of cooking. Streep plays one very-important half of a story about a young woman, Julie Powell, who decides to cook her way through Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,”  which she then chronicles in a blog. The movie pairs her evolving skills in the kitchen with those of her “mentor” Julia Child, who so many years earlier had also learned to cook while in her 30s.

For even mildly curious cooks, the movie is a must-see simply for the story of Julia Child, which is a remarkable tale in itself – as well as for the portrayal by Meryl Streep. (Julia meets her husband-to-be in Ceylon where they are both stationed in the U.S. Office of Strategic Services; very recently it was revealed that she was a spy. Paul, an artist and gourmand, is later posted to Paris — which is where the movie begins –and the rest, as they say, is history as Julia finds her calling in life. For the best tale of Julia, read her autobiography, “My Life in France,” written with great grace with her grandnephew Alex Prud’homme.)  Julie Powell’s book, “Julie & Julia,” is a good read, too, which uses the blog as a starting point and then tells a charming story of her effort to meet a personal challenge of 524 recipes in 365 days. 

But the tale of Julie Powell on film can’t compete with that of cooking master Julia Child. Julie Powell decides to learn to cook. She cooks a lot. Some recipes work; others are failures. She eats. She writes. She frets. She writes. She eats some more. Occcasionally she dissolves into tears and/or marital discord. As they say in the movie biz: There’s no arc to this story. (But there is a lot of chomping on food.) You do get to see Dan Akroyd portray Julia Child in the famous Saturday Night Live skit, but I suspect that will be significant only to cooks of a certain age (say, over 40). (Check out the real Julia on TV here.)

Stanley Tucci plays Julia’s adoring husband, Paul Child.

Julia Child, however, offers a far more enchanting tale that is set in Paris, not the least of which is her passionate, long-lasting romance with her husband, Paul. Pair that love with a great sense of humor, sometimes bawdy, and you’ve got her sending a photo valentine to friends with her and Paul in a bathtub together au natural, bubbles strategically positioned and the words “Wish you were here” inscribed. That’s my kind of cook: Exuberant, curious, full of life — and someone who laughs a lot.

The movie opens Aug. 7. For more tales of Julia Child, check out the Taste section on Aug. 6 (www.startribune.com/taste). Let me know what you think of the movie or the books mentioned.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 5:57 pm and is filed under Food movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.