Bon Appétit.

No one is reading this... yet, but for those in the future this is the beginning of my attempts to corral my thoughts on films into some arbitrary quantifiable understanding. In short, I'll probably be talking a lot though most likely saying very little. This will consist mainly of reviews for various movies (and perhaps some shorts as well) that I will decide to use as company during late night hours when honest, decent folk are asleep. Besides reviews I will most likely display lists of various favorites from certain years or decades and any other movie related posting I will see fit. So I hope you future viewers will bear with me here even with my inevitable grammatical errors, misspellings, and general pontification.

So to start things off I'll begin with my thoughts on a movie from last year that I happened to watch earlier today. So without further delay the first movie I will discuss is Norah Ephron's Julie & Julia (2009). This seems to be an oddly fitting movie for my first post considering the nature of the beginning of Julie Powell's project, it began as a blog. The movie covers two books. First, My Life in France following Julia Child's mastery of her talent and working on her famous book of recipes for those "Servantless American cooks" and second, Julie & Julia, Julie Powell's book covering her undertaking to prepare over 500 of Child's recipes in the span of one year. Amy Adams and Meryl Streep portray the title roles. Adams while never exceptional as Mrs. Powell does what is needed with the role and elicits enough sympathy to drive her portion of the story. I've heard others complain that this half of the movie becomes too self centered but I found her quite likable in her "everywoman" kind of position. However, Julie Child's half of the story is the real butter to the movie in that it's rich, delicious, and you really want more (though perhaps you shouldn't, which I will return to later). Streep is marvelous as usual. I'm sure there is no lack of praise already floating around for her but I have to say right now, if there wasn't already such a word as 'charming,' one would have to be created to describe her turn as Julia Child, she's a sheer joy to watch.

One of the main aspects of the movie is taking control. Julie and Julia both take control over their lives with cooking and where would there be a better place to display such a thing than the chaos of the kitchen? Even the simplest recipes could result in disaster without the proper attention. Like taking control of one's life it requires dedication, determination, and ultimately fearlessness to fail and to pick yourself up and try again. Also, it will sometimes require you to put down your guidelines and forge ahead into the unknown with only your wits and experience and the movie thankfully delivers this in a way that it comes off for the most part as a lighthearted comedy and/or drama and rarely becomes burdensome.

Now back to a previous statement about wanting more of Julia Child's side of the picture. I've noticed several reviews that state a full film on Child's life in France would have been much more enjoyable but I'm not sure I would agree (Well, perhaps it would be a good film but it would be a completely different one). Part of Powell's story is how she comes to terms with her understanding of how she sees her hero, Julia Child, and it's something we could all reflect upon and it accentuates the romantic notions behind the Child's portion of the film and in a way I'm not sure how much more enjoyable it could be before it would become tedious. However, I'm just speculating because I have no other option.

To wrap things up I find Julie & Julia to be a very enjoyable movie, it's a lighthearted affair that I would quickly recommend to pass the time on a dreary weekend and would probably fall somewhere between my favorite ten and twenty movies I've seen from 2009.