Read the Movie discussion

I recently watched the movie Julie and Julia after having read "My Life In France" by Julia Child. I have not read the book by Julie Powell. Overall, I enjoyed the movie but was sad that they seemed to gloss over just how hard Julia Child worked to learn her skills as a French chef and to write "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" She spent years testing the recipes and then testing them again with ingredients found in the US. It was such a labor of love and in the movie it just barely touched on the work she put into it. I enjoyed the portrayal of her relationship with her husband, Paul and found that to be representative of what was in her biography. They had a wonderful and supportive marriage. I thought Meryl Streep did a great job as Julia Child. My friends who had read the Julie Powell book said they liked the Julie character in the movie much more than in the book. Most of them thought Julie was whiney and kind of bitchy. Perhaps Nora Ephron's view of Julie the likability of Amy Adams softened her character a bit.

Having read "Julie & Julia", but not "My Life in France", I didn't share your disappointment at the glossing over of Julia's training in France. I thought the movie was well balanced between the two stories. I've heard a lot of readers comment at Julie's lack of likability but I really related to her when I read the book. I would say good on Julie Powell for not trying to paint herself as a perfect heroine and exposing her character flaws for the world to read about. I really like Amy Adams and thought she was a great choice to play Julie. Meryl was great too, but there's no surprise there.