Movie Review: Julie & Julia is half a good movie (Meryl Streep’s half)

With just one word — “Butter!” — she’s got you.

Meryl Streep slathers so much salacious joie de vivre onto that one line reading early in Julie & Julia that we know we’re in for a glorious ride.

If only.

Because, unfortunately, this movie is not just about Julia Child, godmother of French cooking in America, TV legend (via PBS and Dan Aykroyd) and all-around great dame. It’s about Julia and Julie: Julie Powell, office drone, who in 2003 embarked on the seemingly quixotic task of cooking every recipe in Child’s classic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and writing a blog about it.

Nora Ephron’s screenplay is, as the tagline announces, “based on two true stories”: Child’s autobiographical saga of her own introduction to French cuisine, My Life in France, and Powell’s best-selling book (based on her Salon blog), Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen. And while the real Julie Powell seems, from her writing, to be as gutsy and iconoclastic as the woman who inspired her, Amy Adams’ performance in the role is all twinkle and pout — and pretty soon just a distraction from what we really want to see: more Meryl.

After the break: More on Julie & Julia, plus video of Meryl Streep, Dan Aykroyd and Julia Child as… Julia Child.

This article appears in Aug 5-11, 2009.