The pen

Fernando Mexia, the pen.

Julie & Julia movie is scrumptious. An ode to the cooking pot, domestic, to that which is smelled from the street to pass, which splatters, stains and fills the entire plate. The film is destined to become a thing of the palate that will pierce the screens as happened with Sideways (Sideways) in 2004, when Hollywood became fashionable wine culture, especially the Pinot Noir grape variety, among consumers of popcorn .

The French culinary tradition becomes the plot of this story based on real events that intertwines the lives of his two protagonists, Julia Child (Meryl Streep) and Julie Powell (Amy Adams), two women who never met, reared in times different, which united his passion for cooking.

Both Julie and Julia found the food the way to personal fulfillment, both supported by their husbands, both with no expectation of success but the two with a contagious enthusiasm and optimism, which includes successful this production full of good values, which is rare in the creations of the mecca of cinema.

The plot moves in the parallel life of Julie and Julia and takes its references from the books Julie and Julia J. Powell and My Life in France by J. Child, who weaves with moderate success screenwriter Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, 1989), a fan of good food who also directed the film.

The narrative moves the viewer to France in reconstruction after the Second World War where Julia went to live with her husband, an American diplomat, and developed his talent as a chef. Then the viewer travels in time to the New York borough of Queens, after the attacks of September 11, 2001, where he moved with his partner Julie. Here this young man about to enter the thirties, and disenchanted with their daily comfort the victims of the terrorist attack, he decides to start a blog that aims to tell their experiences preparing all 524 recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days, the book that made ​​Julia in the 60's a celebrity in the U.S., first in the library and then in television .

What is born as an innocent blog will eventually raise the beloved Julie in a bestselling writer in December this year (curious coincidence with the appearance of the film) will release his second book entitled Cleaving.

Streep again proves why it is the most nominated actress Oscar and Golden Globes in history to step into the shoes of Julia cheerful and positive, and leaves a compelling work of Amy Adams, alternating despair and tenderness in his recreation of Julie Powell.

Streep and Adams agreed and in 2008 they accounted paths Doubt nominations for the Oscars, something that could be repeated with this production which also highlights the work of Stanley Tucci as Paul Child comprehensive. Tucci also starred with Streep in The Devil Wears Prada (2004).

If anything sins Julie & Julia , besides gluttony and excess butter, is perhaps the footage be around two hours of projection, not that that detracts from the film more palatable to the released in 2009 to date.

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Annex (August 12, 2009): / I recommend you not keep reading UNTIL YOU SEE THE MOVIE /

A few days after writing this post find the answer to the only question left me "Julie & Julia": why the smiling Julia Child did not like the idea of ​​his fan Julie Powell to make a blog following his recipe?

However, the daily Los Angeles Times today published an article by a journalist who wrote about Powell's blog before he was famous and that she contacted Child to hear from you. The veteran chef, retired in 2001, did not know about that project but after studying it a few days told the reporter the following:

"Well, she does not seem very serious, right? I worked very hard on that book. I tried and went back to try those recipes for eight years so that everyone could cook and lots of people did. I do not understand how she would have had problems with that. It should not have much of a cook. "

Child was convinced that his books were very easy to follow for the average American, but in practice were less simple than I thought.