<p>Just saw this last night. Of course La Streep was brilliant. But, wow, Julia Child lived to be very old for a person who was very tall, smoked, and ate copious amounts of butter. :)</p>
<p>Maybe it was chopping all those onions.</p>
<p>Loved the movie. Loved Julia. Adored Julia’s husband. La Streep was, as 'rent says, brilliant. Julia Child was a big woman, well over six feet as I recall, and Meryl Streep is in real life is tiny. Yet she managed to seem like a six-footer.</p>
<p>But Julie, the blogger, was so irritating and whiny. I didn’t enjoy the parts she was in nearly as much as the Julia part.</p>
<p>Geez, yeah… the whiny and ridiculous Julie, horrid. I was gratified to hear towards the end that the real Julia Child, at 90 years old, did NOT like the Julie-blog and found her disrespectful. </p>
<p>My husband (movie buff) read on IMDB that Meryl Street is 5’6" and was made to appear tall by special shoes in some scenes, use of a forced-perspective camera for certain scenes, and some set design adjustments (lowered countertops, and such like) – all in all, very convincing!</p>
<p>I also thought Stanley Tucci (Paul Child) was just fantastic.</p>
<p>I rally liked the movie too, even Julie. But then I made the mistake of taking Julie Powell’s new book out of the library, the one about her being a butcher and having an affair, and it was so distasteful on so many levels that it actually spoiled the movie for me when I tried to watch it again on DVD with my husband, who had not seen it in the theater with me. Even Amy Adams’s perkiness can’t rescue the Julie character once you’ve read her second book. (And I have to say I didn’t especially like the first one, on which the movie is based, either, but was swept away by the charm of the settings and the Childs as portrayed by Streep and Tucci.) I find myself hoping Powell she isn’t making too much money off her movie rights and that her husband )or former husband?) is happy.</p>
<p>Julie in the movie, particularly as portrayed by the charming Amy Adams, is a much nicer character than the real Julie in the book. Her language in that book was vulgar and she didn’t treat her H very nicely (portents of things to come). I didn’t want to read the second book, between the butchering and the affair.</p>
<p>I looked up some interviews with her when the movie came out, and she and her H are still together. I think they were separated for a while, understandably.</p>
<p>In the movie, I really liked the Julia-Paul parts the best, and I really could have enjoyed a movie just on that book. If you liked that aspect of the movie, the Julia book it is based on is excellent.</p>
<p>My Life in France is a great read. I loved Streep and Tucci, too. I thought that Amy Adams made Julie much more pleasant than she appears to be in real life, and I liked the guy who played her husband very much. I tried reading some of Julie blog after I saw the movie, and was not impressed.</p>
<p>Big fan of the movie and the lady here. I heard Julia Childs on a radio interview with Daine Rehm attribute her longevity to plenty of “good gin and red meat”!</p>
<p>Watched as my wife read the book and loved it, then I read the book and enjoyed it, then we both saw the movie together and really loved it. I was amazed at Streep’s acting job - I couldn’t figure out if I was watching an old clip of Julia Child’s TV show or if it was Meryl Streep playing Julia Child. I was convinced that Streep is a lock for best actress because it was the best acting job I had ever seen. Then someone (ok, it was my mother) says what she did was not really acting, she was imitating, and I got a little confused. Would it be like giving Tina Fey an oscar for her portrayal of Sarah Palin?</p>
<p>We just rented J&J tonight. DH and I both really liked it. We enjoyed the Julia/Paul parts the most too.<br>
We are in the midst of choosing new kitchen cabinets. I have been lobbying for green. DH, of course, is balking. I almost jumped off the couch when they showed Julia’s kitchen with a green cabinet… “Look even J.C. had a green cabinet!”
Told DH if I had it I might cook like J.C.:)</p>
<p>There was a great green kitchen in Six Feet Under, also, if I recall.</p>
<p>I didn’t mind the Julie parts of the movie, I’d already read the original book. I thought she was somewhat whiny and self absorbed, but I also thought she had a really thankless job. That said, I heard her interviewed about the new book and I have no interest in reading it at all. That said Julia and Paul were brilliant in the movie (and actually I like Julie’s imagined scenes she wrote about them in her book too.) I got my life in France for Christmas, I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read so far, but I’m trying to finish Wolf Hall before going back to it.</p>
<p>I think it’s silly to make a distinction between acting and imitating. We have a lot of Julia on tape so of course she needs to get her right. But after the initial shock of how good it was, I was completely convinced.</p>
<p>We watched the movie as a family during Christmas break, over the objections of my senior-in-high-school son. He thought it would be “gay.” Hmmm … he didn’t leave, fall asleep, or make comments during the movie. He must have thought it was okay, after all! The rest of us truly enjoyed it.</p>
<p>I have a green kitchen! But as we get closer to the time we’ll be downsizing, I realize that it’s going to be a negative to the typical prospective buyer…</p>
<p>Loved J&J and walked out of the movie absolutely ravenous.</p>
<p>So were Julia and/or Paul spies in China?</p>
<p>My daughters and I all went to see J&J during the summer ( right before the older girls left for school ) We really loved it and left the theatre and headed right for the grocery store…the movie really sparked our appetites !
Bought the DVD for my husband for Christmas and he wasn’t too thrilled to watch it ,but when he did, also loved it !</p>
<p>So some friends and I are getting together this week to cook from THE book.</p>
<p>I saw the movie last summer with my Mom and we both loved it.
I second reading “My Life in France” , its a great read.</p>
<p>I rented this movie and fully expected H to opt out. He didn’t. In fact, I believe he enjoyed it even more than I did. I was unaware of the unattractive details in the real-life story of Julie. Just as well because I want to bask in the glow of a well-enjoyed movie and not ruin it.</p>
<p>What a delight and Streep, once again, was brilliant.</p>
<p>Yes, I was really surprised as we stood in front of the Red Box in the grocery store searching for a movie that DH actually pointed out J&J saying “Didn’t you want to see that one”. I said “Yes, but it’s sort of a Chick Flick. I didn’t think you’d be interested”.
DH says “Why not? I like Chicks!”</p>