Why “Julie and Julia” matters

Julia Child is and always will be a legend. A cooking legend in her later life she has captured the imagination and hearts of amateur and professional cooks everywhere. She is the quintessential quirk in everything that she did. Her show and life inspired a exhibit in The Smithsonian. And the top it all off, she inspired a burned out writer to take Julia Child’s cook book and cook through the year with the idea that it was something to finish after not finishing so many different things in her life.

It is a great movie. Meryl Streep is Julia in every sense of the word. By the end of the film you have fallen in love with her several times over and simply want to reach out and hug her over and over. Then have her cook for you because she was on helluva cook. The Julie character is less perfect and more flawed than Child and it’s an interesting study in perspectives. Halfway though the movie (it’s long but well worth it) Julie sends her husband into a righteous rage about her self centered selfish ego that nearly destroys their marriage. It is a moment of brief seriousness that brings us all down a bit from the half cocked smiled we’ve all had since the credits rolled.

It serves to remind us that Julia Child was something different in her world and time. She was probably eccentric. More than a little crazy for all the things she set out to do and accomplished with great relish. But she had a zest for life that the film portrays as a bit child like and yet very adult. She could be angry and probably could say a few bad things about a few people. She was normal in that manner.

But in everything else she was a loose cannon full of confetti that rocked the boat, sent it turning over and then righted it again with a new paint job. Part of this rubs off on the character of Julie as she discovers what great food can do with her relationship, friends and her small little world she lives. She finds inspiration in the words of the recipes of Julia and marvels at the complete irreverence of the television show. Her writing blends with the cooking and provides therapy for the terrible (I had a similar job) work she has to do during the day. At the end of the film through all the tears, fits, tantrums and lobster boiling (classic scene) you come to realize that the journey of Julie through Julia’s world gives us a sense of what we are missing in this day and age.

I’m not about to try and rise to the occasion of taking on Julia Child’s cooking as such action would require a fire truck on constant standby. What I’m going to do is take a challenge on for 2010. I’ll be blogging. About what I cannot fathom yet but you’re welcome to suggest as I also contemplate and marinate on the ideas.

A side note about the reaction from Julia Child in regards to the blog/book. I would agree that the use of four letter words to describe something is somewhat disappointing.   As flawed as the English language is, it does contain numerous if not a plethora of descriptive prose to detail out the feelings, emotions and experiences.