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Dear Stewart,
Last night I finally watched the Meryl Streep/Amy Adams movie "Julie & Julia." It was kind of crazy, because I read the book and hated it. OK, I hated 50% of it (can you guess which half?). I was really hoping that Julie Powell would be an inspiring person, but no.
The food was interesting, the Julia Childs parts were interesting, but Julie P.'s life and her friends and her writing never really won me over. Even her husband wasn't that appealing.
They seemed to have made some effort to make her likeable in the movie by casting nice Amy Adams, and they seemed to try to differentiate her from her spoiled friends (make the friends more vile and Julie seems less vile but still annoying). The bits about her at work were not as offensive as they were in the book, but her attitude toward her job and the work she was doing was still pretty awful. People who work in cubicles are not all losers. Not all jobs like that are "dead-end." She seemed to think that she was destined for greatness and wasting her time "at work."
One thing that I was surprised to actually like was when (someone) referred to Julia Childs as her "imaginary friend." That felt familiar and uncomfortable.
(Hi, Stewart!)
Of course the actual cooking (not the tantrum throwing or food dropping incidents, which made me wonder how often Julie mopped her kitchen floor) and the Julia Childs parts were awesome. Jane Lynch as Julia's sister was also a welcome surprise, and France and French ladies and French food have never seemed so fun and attractive. I liked all those parts, just as I did in the book.
I know a lot has been made about how Julia found Julie to be "not that serious," and that Julie uses this (to her advantage) to spout off with yet one more stupid cliché about life and loving yourself and not caring about what others think of you (even if the "other" is her own idol), but the thing is, I think Julia was just commenting on her lack of cooking skills and her sloppy execution and Julie used it, like she used everything else, to get more attention.
Whatever.
That's not what this is.
I'll never have a book deal or a movie, and that's just fine with me.
Love you,
Irene
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
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5 comments:
"I'll never have a book deal or a movie..."
Never say never.
I don't get the warm fuzzies from her either. When the movie was being advertised I looked the author up and had to laugh at the fact that Ms. Childs wouldn't give her the time of day. ha.
Not until this moment did I fully comprehend the scriptworthy nature of your blog. I'm already casting Stewart. I'm thinking a young shaggy Thomas Jane (when he's blond)
I tried to think of a movie that could represent my blog and came to the start realization that it's either Requiem for a Dream or Panic Room.
I have to be careful, criticizing Julie Powell, because if we're all bloggers and that's a unifying factor (I too thought that turning 30 was a way bigger deal at the time than it turned out to be; I too married a kind man; I too, as part of my job, speak to irate or disturbed people on the telephone...), her desire for readers and attention is no different than my own.
But she was such a yappy little bitch that I just can't like her, as hard as I tried.
Dan, do you know something I don't know?
(Well, the answer to this question will always be "of course I know something you don't know," but in relation to this topic?
Well, alright then. Never. Say. Never.
Cue Stewart Copeland soundtrack in 5, 4, 3...
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