First things first, Meryl Streep did not deserve an Oscar nomination for this performance. Yes, Streep gives a fun, bouncy performance as Julia Child. She is a delight to watch, but it is certainly not a great work of acting. She mimics the iconic chef but she never manages to disappear into the role. No matter how approachable she is, it is always Streep dressed up like Child.

Perhaps Streeps' performance seems so grand because she's placed opposite Amy Adams. Adams portrays Julie Powell, an insecure, metro lib who begins a blog that covers her attempts to cook her way through Child's classic cookbook. Adams has enough ability to manage a chick flick where she needs to be slightly sympathetic and mildly pretty. Her skills are outmatched by Streep, just as in their last pairing as a couple of nuns in Doubt. Where Adams pale screen presence actually helped her in the subordinate role in Doubt, in this production it makes her scenes timid and unfulfilled.

It doesn't help that Adams' Jule Powell is one of the more insufferable characters I've seen. Ever see a child actor in a film (for example the kiddy Anakin Skywalker) and every time you see them you want to slap them around for being so obnoxious and grating? That is where Julie Powell left me. The woman portrayed here is a miserable, self-absorbed jerk who is as welcoming as a rug burn. By the time we would get a minute into one of Adams' scenes I was begging to see more of Streep doing her cocktail party impression of the manly matron of measuring cups.

Something that fascinated me about this film is the obtuse inclusion of potshots at republicans. Seriously. Even in a film centered on Julia Child, there are random insults at conservatives and a subplot involving Child's diplomat husband being hounded by HUAC. To give a flavor of the kind of nonsensical jabs that are shoehorned into the script, when Julie's boss discovers she called in sick when she really wasn't he explains "Anyone else would fire you. A Republican would fire you!" If that line doesn't make any sense, don't worry, proving more context won't help. I assume poor Nora Ephron, who wrote the script, has some kind of political tourettes where she can't help but belch out invective against the Right-wing conspiracy hiding in the cupboards.

To sum the film up, there are some pleasant scenes involving Child as she works to bring her cookbook to press. These scenes are sprinkled among a stinking bog of post-modern feminist "me, me, me, more me now" scenes where Amy Adams does her best to be perky but only reminds us she's no Meryl Streep - even a Meryl Streep phoning it in because she knows she just has to show up to get the Oscar nod.

This is not a bad movie but it is more flawed than many will admit.




Related Reviews:
Meryl Streep movies
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)


Other Critic’s Reviews:
Movies for the Masses
Pajamas Media

Labels: Amy Adams, film, Meryl Streep, movie review, Nora Ephron, Stanley Tucci