I see Father over at Madeline's Egg has beat me to reviewing Julie and Julia even though I saw it a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed that movie so much and wanted to write a review worthy of it and you know how you get so hung up on doing something well that you actually never to it? Anyway someone has to mention there was more than the hot sexy scenes between a tall woman and short man which so impressed Father. I don't know how tall Father is, but you know....
As a someone who fancies herself a cook and grew up watching Julia Child, this movie of course was a must see. It's a wonderful portrayal of an amazing woman who was full of life and passion and confidence. She was tall and independent in an era when women were supposed to be dimminutive and dependent. And yet she was able to find that balance of independence as well as being supportive and loving and giving to her husband. Something a lot of modern women in the name of feminism seem to have a difficult time figuring out how to maintain.
Like that other girl in the movie what was her name, Julie? I have to say I was much less interested in her story, though I realize her book is the only reason we have this movie. I thought she was kind of a selfish little twit. But at least she sort of realized that at the end as well. I still can't figure out how she got famous by writing a blog about cooking. But if it bring this movie to theatres, I'm all for it.
At a time when Madison Avenue was convincing women they didn't have the time or the skill to do complicated things in the kitchen, Julia was telling women, yes you can. You can bake a cake from scratch. You can dress a chicken. You can make an aspic. (Although why you would want to, I don't know) And the storyline about Julie does show how being able to conquer these tasks in the kitchen gave a floundering young woman confidence and purpose and maybe even helped her become a better wife and human being.
This movie made me want to go home and cook something, which I think I did. I read somewhere that homecooking is now considered a "hobby". I'm just always amazed at the number of children that are fed frozen processed food when it's really NOT that time consuming to make a decent dinner out of real food. I can put some really good stuff together in a half hour. Anybody that is too busy to take a half hour to prepare healthy good food for their family needs to reevaluate their priorities. And no I don't just mean women. When my husband was alive, he did most of the everyday cooking. I was mostly in charge of special meals.
Anyway. Go see the movie. You will like it.
I hope to see this movie.
ReplyDeleteRe: cooking. Yes, from scratch is usually easy and much cheaper, and usually tastier (less of that chemical taste!). It takes commitment and a few things in the cupboard so you don't have to buy packaged food. I'm really bad on the planning ahead aspect of cooking, but I still manage to cook from scratch. Well, we tend to eat after 7:00 pm, so that's the trade off for us. I hope this doesn't post twice because the first one disappeared.
I hope it isn't a sign from God that the secret word that I had to type was psyco.
ReplyDeleteI was raised by parents who would have cooking contests with one another to see who could whip up the most interesting omelet, sandwich, etc. And those attempts were very interesting at times! The huge 2-volume Gourmet cookbook had pride of place on the bookshelf, even though my mother concocted many of her own recipes. I was taught how to use a gas stove at age eight, something that now would probably be considered child neglect.
ReplyDeleteAll this verbiage is to say that I'm happy for this movie and the proliferation of cooking channels over the years. I've always found great comfort and joy in cooking and hope others will, too!
The film is opening here next week - people are wondering how it will get on, since nobody here (including us) has ever heard of Julia Childs!
ReplyDeleteMost of the cooking channels, surely, are gastro-porn - people watch cooking rather than doing it themselves? I actually far prefer my own cooking to most supermarket ready meals, and by the time you've done the vegetables to go with it, you might as well have cooked from scratch anyway.