Movie Review: Julie and Julia

This probably should have been up a long while ago, but you know how life can be, I'm sure. Since I took my time to read the book, I figured that it was only fair to watch the movie and review it as well.


This movie stars Amy Adams and Meryl Streep as Julie and Julia, respectively. I'm a fan of both actresses and I adore their movies. I will admit that when I first heard Meryl Streep speak in the movie, it threw me for a loop. I definitely wasn't expecting Julia to speak that way, I guess. I had to do a little more research on the real Julia Child to realize that she did a very good job at portraying Julia.

I enjoyed having a more indepth look at Julia Child herself and getting to know her and understanding how Julie and Julia were comparable. I have to say I like reading a whole lot, but I believe that the movie was better than the book. This is one case where the movie had more information than the book. Julie was almost exactly how I imagined her in the book with her bouts of rage and a fight with her husband. While watching Eric's reactions on film, I felt that he was much more assertive than in the book.


I'm usually a big advocate for reading books before watching movies, but I think in this case, either would suffice and you'd get a different perspective in both mediums. The book is more centered on Julie whereas, the movie is more  centered on Julia.


Overall, I give this movie a rating of 5 out of 5 stars! 


Thank you for reading,

Crys


To purchase this movie, follow the link below:

Julie & Julia : DVD
Julie & Julia : [Blu-ray]

Book Review: Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

I found this book on the shelf of my local Dollar Tree a couple of weeks ago. The first few times I saw it, I passed it up and went on with my day; but I figured since I'm seeing it so much, I might as well buy it! It was a great deal too, because if you know anything about Dollar Tree you know that everything is one dollar.

Okay, anyway, down to business.

What is this book about?

A woman nearing thirty who works as a secretary at a government agency in New York decides that she needs to do something more with her life. She wants to find herself, if you will. She decides to do that using her cooking idol Julia Child's cookbook titled: Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She gives herself a year to complete all the recipes within the book and all sorts of craziness happens.


What Did I Like and/or Dislike? 

Okay, so I guess it's really no surprise to anyone who has read this book that I think Julie is rather whiny and self-centered. I don't necessarily dislike that about the book really. I think that's just her and how humans really are, basically whether we want to admit it or not. At least she's being honest and didn't write about how she was such a saint and all that. Since this is a memoir, it tells about Julie's life surrounding this challenge as well. I found her life experiences to be quite funny and I loved her writing style. The other people around her, I found really quite interesting. Isabel and her crazy antics and the crazy things she'd say and comment on Julie's blog. Eric who is indeed a saint for putting up with Julie and her frequent gripes (I know I would not have been able to stay as calm as he did throughout this challenge of hers). I loved to dislike Nate, her boss. He really seemed like a complete stinker of a man.

The things I disliked were the fact that I really didn't get to understand why Julie liked Julia so much. She didn't really go into too much detail about it, but maybe it was implied. I also would have liked to learn more about Julia as well during all this. The excerpts of letters that were included in the book helped out a little, but I still wasn't all that understanding of Julia.


Overall, I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed reading it and I even watched the movie as soon as I was finished reading! I have to say, this book has kind of inspired me to make a project of my own and see where it takes me. Anyway, I recommend reading this book if you like memoirs and cooking.


You can purchase this book from Amazon by following the link below!

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously