Sunday, February 28, 2010

"Julie and Julia" ....and happy endings.....

Back from hybernation!
It may seem hard to believe but I have been contemplating writing something up for a really long time now....... I even had a couple o' topics all figured out in my head..... only to give in to the strongest of the various alter egos that inhabit me - procrastination!
'Nyways, better late than never (whoever coined that proverb certainly did lazy geese like me a huge favour!).
One of the many things I've been wanting to blog abt is this movie- Julie and Julia ...... essentially, what about the movie touched me and why ..... (Warning!) So if you are expecting more of a critic's review , you may be disappointed.....
Saw the movie for the first time on "The Majesty of the Seas" ..... a cruise ship (if you haven't already guessed). Thanks to free pay perview -a surprise perk in the otherwise largely overrated stateroom.
It was love at first view- or lets say, partial view, owing to the fact that I missed about a third of the film during both my views. It wasn't exactly rocket science, so I kinda guessed .... and hence the audacity of writing about a movie, the beginnings of which I still, (inspite of an undaunted effort on my part) haven't been able to see.

All of this was before the awards season, so I wasn't exactly aware of the existence of the film when I saw it. I found the plot charming.... sweet. Now, if that had anything at all to do with my helpless addiction to the food network or my unfaltering fascination for everything French ,ranging from its architecture through to the toast..... I could never be sure ........
This movie is based on the book by Julie Powell ( blogger turned author)
For those that haven't already seen the film, here's a gist - Your regular girl next door, Julie Powell, having succumbed to the grind of a life, largely comprising of a depressing cubicle job, wallows in a sense of underachievement and in an effort to do something about it, chances upon the idea of cooking through the book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child while blogging about the experience at the same time.
As she embarks on her "Deranged assignment"- as she calls it, she begins to identifying with the author Child, to the point of idolizing her. A big part of the movie is about her journey through what eventually turns into her passion- (cooking through some 500 odd recipes by Child, in one year) and is a well crafted parallel play of the stories of Julia Child and Julie Powell.

I was blown over by Meryl Streep's (Julia Child in the film) performance, inspite of not knowing at the time how scaringly close to the real thing her performance was. And subsequently, seeing a video of the real Julia Child on youtube, left me helpless as I turned into a "Streep" fan.
Julie Powell's character,I could relate to. A 30something woman, 20 in my case, sulking in underachievement, seeking redemption through her blog - sounded familiar. Other couple o' details like - her love for food ......the art of cooking, a bitchy "friend" that took great pleasure in making her feel awful, a strong feeling that there had to be more to life than its life-sucking grind...... and the need to feel intensely about at least this one thing that would carry her through an otherwise luke warm life, may have rung a bell too.
And how that one thing helps her find her sense of self worth in the end (sigh!)...

Inspite of the end being blatantly, insultingly obvious, I found myself guilty of wanting her to succeed in her "project" . Well what can I say ...... I like happy endings (sigh!)...
Julie Powell's role was a challenge for Amy Adams to portray, I am sure, though she has, in my opinion done it justice to a commendable extent..... there were still places I found her getting a tad bit melodramatic. I'm not quite sure if that was intentional though......

Anyhow,......I got so excited after watching the movie, that a good friend of mine (who also liked the movie btw) and I together began wondering what a million others would've too after watching the film........ " If I were to do what Julie Powell did, cook through the recipes of some great Cook that is, who would it be?" .... and the both of us zeroed in on our favourite cook ever, Ina Garten - from the Barefoot Contessa (food network- duh!) ....... I mean, she being the most suave, elegant, accomplished cook we'd ever seen n all.... was an obvious choice....
My only glich being, I don't eat meat!....... So that trashed my chances, right there of following all of her recipes to the T (the one thing, I realized was essential for a mission of this nature to qualify as one in the first place).......
'Nyways, I continue to try my luck at grabbing a copy of the movie from the blockbuster movie dispenser at Publix ......... and I certainly hope to get lucky someday :)

PS: I had to add the following to my post for reasons you shall discover as you read on....
Date: March 6, 2010..... (a day after posting the piece above).
Well, speaking of happy endings.......
My darling husband, I shall call him "K" in the blog (more for the coolness factor than reasons of anonymity!)..... hasn't yet mastered the art of reading what girls, in this case I "actually" mean when I say something ..... For instance, when he ASKS me (which is a cardinal sin in the world of Romance!), what I would like for Valentines, and I say " Oh Honey! all I want is your love",he actually believes me!!
.... I know! right? ........ As I am writing this up I find his naivety endearing ....... but that wasn't quite the case this morning, and last night.......
I shall let you in on a li'l secret about us women- we love laying guilt trips on our men..... that being said you've probably figured what followed (!)......
So as I stood there crying about how he didn't love me anymore (boohoo...), he decided to go grocery shopping -" To Publix" since we had run out of salt n all ....... and just as I finished up making lunch...... I heard Meryl Streep on our television
(Awwwwwwwww! I know!).
"Yes......at that very moment everything made sense to me......" (Its official! The movie dispenser has a great sense of timing!))

And we watched to movie together...... (all dreamy eyed....... well, at least i was!)....... needless to say , i loved it...... I noticed a couple of things I didn't when i last saw it ....... Paul Child,Julia's husband is the most adoooorable husband ever (with the exception of K of course) and is one of the best things that happened to the movie......... I loved the transition between both stories and I thought the visual difference was well brought out(am assuming they used some kinda filter)...... and other little things like... the smush of jam on a page of the cookbook..... and my husbands hands that were holding mine .......