Food --> Blog --> Book --> Film

...You are the butter to my bread and the breath to my life. ~Paul Child, Julie & Julia

I watched Julie & Julia with my parents last night - or, more precisely, I watched 20 minutes of it with my parents, the next 20 with only my mom because Dad fell asleep, as is the typical result when you mix him and films made for women that don't feature super-attractive actresses (it's not you, Amy Adams, it's your hairstyle), and then the rest by myself, as Mom also decided she was too tired to watch a movie about making French food. I had had no strong interest in seeing it when it first came out, and I only chose it at the Wegmans redbox because it was the only "comedy" I thought my mom might like - and that I hadn't already seen. (She was very "Oooh, The Proposal," and I was very "No, trust me, it's for your own good." Though she did want to see Did You Hear About the Morgans? from the trailer before Julie & Julia - I think she was blinded to its ridiculousness by her unfaltering fondness for Hugh Grant - so maybe she would have actually enjoyed the Sandra Bullock-Ryan Reynolds letdown.) In any case, I actually liked Julie & Julia, though it shouldn't really have been billed as a comedy, and I now have an urge to try at least one recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

It should go without saying that Meryl Streep is a fantastic actress, and I enjoyed her story as Julia Child much more than I enjoyed the contemporary one of Amy Adams' Julie Powell. It was refreshing to see a feisty, butter-loving woman, a happy marriage - and a pen-pal relationship! That was such a lovely surprise to discover.

What a romantic concept, pen-palling. I had a pen-pal once that I can recall, the daughter of a friend of a friend of my parents'. She lived in Indiana (I think), and I in Florida, and we exchanged letters for a number of months (I think). We met once, maybe twice, and lost touch, sadly. We are not facebook friends; actually, I haven't even looked for her on facebook, which I know must come as a shock, but now that I think about it, maybe I will...

Anyway, it was the overall retro-ness of the Julia Child part of the movie that kept me hooked. Supported by the fine Stanley Tucci - and the delightful Jane Lynch in a small role, Meryl Streep sold Julia Child with every elongated word, every emotive smile, and every inch of her tall frame. (Did anyone notice the high heels she was wearing in the final scene? I guess she's not taller than Tucci in real life?) I have to admit, I was a little put off by Streep and Tucci as a couple, though, as they played ice queen magazine editor and gay assistant, respectively, in The Devil Wears Prada. It was just weird to watch them canoodle as the Childs while also associating them with the characters of Miranda and Nigel. Amy Adams was once again very watchable as a "government drone"-turned-famous blogger, though she had little more to do besides cook and cry. Overall, it was a good movie, but I really could have done without the Julie half (it's not you, Amy Adams, it's your emotionally unstable character who showed almost zero growth) and just watched a whole two hours of Meryl as Julia.

The premise of the Julie Powell story actually reminded me of a White Whine I'd seen the other day:

[Sigh] Does anyone start a blog these days WITHOUT the agenda of getting a book deal?

Granted, she didn't start the blog with the intention of making it into a book (or did she?), but she certainly contributed to the craze. I mean, she's one of the ultimate success stories, right? She turned a blog into two books and a movie! (The second is about learning to butcher - and how both she and her husband cheated on each other after her first book came out. Awkward.) Not gonna lie, I think it'd be pretty awesome to get a book deal from blogging, but I'm setting other life goals - just in case.