Even in the 21st Century, it is rare to see a film in which women get top billing. This summer’s Julie and Julia stars two women: Meryl Streep as the legendary Julia Child and Amy Adams as Julie Powell. Both women have wonderful and supportive men in their lives – but that just isn’t enough. Instead, they both take control of their lives by following their passion for cooking. More precisely, French cooking. Adopted from Child’s book My Life in France and Julie Powell’s Julie and Julia, the film intertwines the lives of two women as they “master the art of French cooking.”
Nora Ephron Writes Strong Female Characters
With Streep and Adams on screen, a third woman is responsible for this film behind the scenes. She is Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle), writer, director, and co-producer.From Ephron’s earliest film, Silkwood (1983) also starring Meryl Streep, Ephron has created strong female characters. Following the form of Sleepless in Seattle, Julie and Julia stars two characters who don’t share a single scene together. Julie Powell decides to anchor her life, meet her goals, and learn to cook by going through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Interspersed with Julie’s modern story, we are transported back to 1950s Paris, where Julia Child also learned to cook at the Cordon Bleu, and then embarked on an eight year project to write a French cookbook for “servantless American cook.”
Meryl Streep embodies in Julia Child not simply a capable cook but an ebullient personality. Someone with compassion, conviction, fortitude, and humor. While Julia Powell admires her cooking prowess as she agonizes over steaming a live lobster and boning a duck, she also takes inspiration from her patience and compassion. While Julie struggles with a desk job and a tiny apartment above a pizzeria, she learns to be a better person and follow her passion by finding a woman to look up to.
Women in the Kitchen, Again.
Most films resolve women’s angst through marriage rather than work. Julie and Julia portrays two women who find fulfillment not through marriage (although Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina play lovely, supportive husbands) but through a fairly traditional female activity: cooking.
However, there is a big difference between cooking for a family and being a chef. The former is for women and the latter is reserved for men. When Julia Child decides to learn French cooking, she is the only woman in the class. In a comical scene, Meryl Streep chops an inordinate amount of onions, determined to equal the chopping skills of her male peers. Today, women feel less confined to the kitchen, but the occupation of chef is still a male-dominated profession. Just tune into the Food Network. Julie Powell reclaims fine cooking not for her husband, but for herself and her career. In this way, Powell is still trailblazing, and Ephron’s script is still breaking ground by portraying women who find fulfillment outside of the domestic sphere.
Is Julia More than a Chick Flick?
Foodies will certainly enjoy this film. It’s sweet and idyllic and filled with savory French recipes. Streep is, needless to say, marvelous. Adams is endearing and talented. Paris shines in its post-war glory days. This may be a movie by women, about women, but it is also about food, passion, life, and all those wholesome and universal themes which appeal to everyone.
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