TT-981016-Section 2-P17-TV Guides-IB
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A R O U N D T O W N 發光的城市 17 TAIPEI TIMES • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2009 FILM REVIEW Too many books spoil the broth BY IAN BartHOLomeW STAFF REPORTER There is a distinct sense of unevenness in ‘Julie & Julia,’ a movie about a woman whose JULIE & JULIA book revolutionized American home cooking, and another who DIRECTED BY: NORA EPHRON blogged her way through it STARRING: MERYL STReeP (JULIA CHILD), AmY ADAms (JULIE POWELL), STANLEY TUccI Meryl Streep, above right and bottom left, and ulie & Julia boasts that it is based (PAUL CHILD), CHRIS MessINA (ERIC Amy Adams, top left, star in Julie & Julia, directed on two true stories: that of Julia POWELL), LINDA EMOND (SIMOne BecK) by Nora Ephron. PHOTOS COURTESY OF SONY PICTURES J Child, the diplomat’s wife turned chef whose book Mastering the Art RUNNING TIME: of French Cooking revolutionized the 123 MINUTES egg yoke” never really emerges, and the American culinary scene, and Julie seriousness of Child’s endeavor gets Powell, whose blog about working her TAIWAN RELEASE: smothered in chick-flick marshmallow. way through that very same book was TODAY At its heart, Julie & Julia is a film turned into a best-selling chick-lit novel. about publishing: the emotional payoffs In effect, packed into the two hours are Child eventually finding a publisher of the film are not just two true stories, for her revolutionary 700-page cookbook, but two books, three if you count blogging about Child’s book. This is more and the realization of Powell’s dream Child’s My Life in France, from which familiar Nora Ephron territory, and it to monetize her blog (something she much of her story is taken, and a blog. shares similarities in tone with earlier has done with remarkable success; this As most movies face problems adapt- works, though it lacks her customary film also boasts that it’s the first motion ing just one novel into film format, it witty dialogue. Because let’s face it, picture based on a blog). is hardly a surprise that Julie & Julia there simply isn’t time to get too wordy, There is also a distinct sense of is constantly in danger of falling apart and even Powell’s less-than-momentous unevenness about the movie. Amy from an excess of ingredients. but sometimes amusing meditations on Adams is no match for Streep, and There is nevertheless much to admire, a culinary relationship spanning half a Child’s memoirs of her life in France, not least Meryl Streep’s performance as century are neglected, as the camera cuts even in the sparse form they are Julia Child, the large American woman back again to Paris in the 1960s. presented here, are significantly more who barrels her way through France with With all this to-ing and fro-ing, the interesting that Powell’s one-year blog a trans-Atlantic gusto that shocks and food, which is central to both Child’s project and minor relationship blunders. delights the Continentals in equal mea- and Powell’s achievements, is pretty The loving attention paid to period sure. Streep creates a portrait of Child much neglected except for a couple of detail, which makes the 1960s sections that possesses considerable depth, but her sight gags, the most memorable of which so lush, also gives the modern sequences story, from her discovery of the delights of features a lobster. For a self-declared a low-rent made-for-TV feel. good French cooking to her efforts to study foodie, I found this a terrible disappoint- So while Julie & Julia is not a ter- the cuisine seriously and eventually publish ment, though others may not. But by the rible film, there is nothing very satisfying a book demystifying it for an American end of the film, those who were unaware about it either. Ephron tries to do too audience, is little more than a sketch. of what exactly Child achieved will not many things at once and, skilled director The lack of detail is necessary, for be much the wiser. The woman who that she is, gets through the task, though the story must constantly cut forward to demands of her readers that “you should with a palpable sense of effort. Clearly she Amy Adams’ (as Julie Powell) struggle be able to make it [mayonnaise] by hand intended the film to be a light souffle, but to find meaning in her life through as part of your general mastery of the it has ended up a rather stodgy pudding. TT-981016-P17-IB.indd 1 2009/10/15 08:34:43.