Julie & Julia | Movie Review

Movie Review
Julie & Julia
Written by Mark Baratelli

Two hours before the start of the film, a friend randomly offered me a ticket to join him and three other friends to the sneak preview of "Julie & Julia" Wednesday night. I opted into the last-minute group-date even though I had blogging to do and the movie was WAY out in Altamonte, the Queens of Orlando.

The movie ended up being about a person who writes a blog. Hello. In 2002, she sets a goal for herself: cook her way through all 524 recipes in Julia Child's apparently-legendary cook book in one year and blog about the experience. Half the movie is that character, played in a short wig (I hope) by Amy Adams. The interesting half is Meryl Streep.

Dressing a good actor in fabulous clothes and placing her in 1940s Paris is as gay as Bruno and just as entertaining. Streep's freedom she'd built for herself in constructing this character of Julia Childs was astonishing. She really could go anywhere and she did.

Not only was the performance nice, but the story was interesting. Childs was an over-the-hill wife with nothing to do. She tried hat making and bridge, and then randomly tried a cooking class. She took to it like Mary Kate to clogs, and eight years later, had a hit book on her hands.

A welcome breath of lady-air were the surprise appearances by some of my favorite femal comedic character actors, none of which I know by name:

-The Mom on "Strangers With Candy"

-The butch lesbian in "Best in Show"

-The unfunny new one on SNL

They're good and nothing beat the butch lesbian's entrance in this movie. Hilarious and honest.

I don't have anything bad to say about this movie, and how could I when I paid nothing to see it? Thank you to my friend and thank you to Meryl Streep for reminding me that watching good actors act can be breathtaking.

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