After World War II the apogee of American cooking was the tuna fish casserole topped with crumpled potato chips. Julia Child changed that. Her Mastering the Art of FrenchCooking was to the kitchen what the Kinsey Reports were to the bedroom-a seminal book that broadened the spectrum of expectations. Addressed to "the servantless American cook," many of her recipes would challenge households with servants. Who has time nowadays to prepare aspic from calf's feet? Who had time back then?
But it was the idea of Julia Child, opening the American imagination to the art of cooking at a time when fast food was on the rise, which remains more important than any specific recipe-unless you are Julie Powell. Earlier this decade the young New York City woman launched a daily blog recording her sometimes flustered, usually delicious cover-to-cover odyssey through Child's famed recipe book. Her account, along with Child's own memoir, is the basis for the amusing and endearing Julie & Julia, in which Child's discovery of French cuisine alternates on a parallel track with Powell's discovery of Child.
Although Amy Adams is pert and convincing as the sweet-naturedly determined Powell, Meryl Streep easily dominates the film in the Child role. The reason has almost as much to do with the character of Child as the talent of the veteran actress. Streep masters the effortless affectation of her subject, a patrician housewife whisking butter into submission while wearing a string of pearls. Child comes across as an individual spirit in an age of conformity, Powell as ordinary in an age of supposed individualism. Where Child strode regally over all obstacles, Powell seems insecure.
Both women had lives outside the kitchen. Child was married to an American diplomat in Paris (played with understated sophistication by Stanley Tucci) and was the perfect tourist, eagerly lapping up the cobble-stoned sights, mellifluous sounds and rich flavors of the city. Shopping for food and sampling the bistros proved more absorbing than playing bridge with the embassy wives. Her husband was loving and supportive, but troubled by the long shadow of Sen. McCarthy. For Powell, cooking was a respite from her clerical job, fielding calls from self-important family members of 9/11 victims, and her tedious circle of careerist friends from college. Her husband (Chris Messina) is loving but not always supportive. In today's multi-tasking world, someone important is always pushed to the bottom of everyone's to-do list. As Powell's blog grows more popular and absorbs most of her free time, he feels ignored.
Nora Ephron, the writer-director who explored Internet romance in You've Got Mail, has no trouble making Powell's blogging look cinematic. More important is her easy touch in recreating the champagne fizz of classic Hollywood in a contemporary context. Like the best romantic comedies of bygone times, Julie & Julia is a feel-good story that manages to be effervescent instead of stupid. Its relentless optimism is stiffened by the realization that happy endings aren't easily won. n
