Julie & Julia: Boeuf Bourguignon, Anyone?

Julie & Julia, which recently opened in local movie houses, is a joy to experience. At first, I was wary, wondering if I would encounter a Hollywood glossover that deviated sharply with artistic liberties from the historical record. To my comfort and reassurance, Nora Ephron’s screenplay and direction lay endearingly close to the story as it occurred in Julia Child’s life and, presumably, in Julie Powell’s.

Meryl Streep is nothing less than phenomenal in her portrayal of the former Julia McWilliams, from shortly after her marriage to Paul Child in the late 1940's until the publication of her groundbreaking Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the early 1960's, which work revolutionized home cooking in America. Streep captures Child’s ebullience and unfailing humor at every turn, though here and there the ebullience is overworked and lands on a plateau. With Child’s characteristic hair style, dress and mannerisms, it’s hard to believe we’re watching anyone else.

Stanley Tucci is no slouch himself as the tasteful and faithful Rock of Gibraltar on which Julia leans. Having been cast with precision, Tucci is similarly a dead ringer for Paul Child in those years. The uncanny similarities in cast and character are highlighted by the 1956 Valentine photo of Paul and Julia in the bathtub of their German hotel, with “Wish you were here” encircled by a heart. The only difference from the real photo and the photo in the film is that the couple in the film photo happen to be Streep and Tucci.

In the culinary precision evident in the making of this film, Julie Powell is deftly portrayed by Amy Adams. As a 30-year old woman of the 21st century living in Queens, New York, Julie is a product of her times and exhibits no greater sense of self-absorption than any other woman in such circumstances, contrary to public expectations of an upstart riding the coattails of a legend. She’s actually a sweet person for her situation. Her dilemma as a writer is real, and the lengths to which she goes to overcome her career stagnation are admirable.

Julie’s husband, Eric, portrayed with similar appeal by Chris Messina, is the modern day Rock of Gibraltar Paul Child represents to Julia 50 years earlier. The modern version of tasteful and faithful is a bit scruffier than the earlier one, but such is the 21st century.

What I found most appealing in the film, aside from the rich characterizations whisked to perfection, was the beauty of the marriages in which these women arrived. At times like ours, one seldom has occasion to be immersed in the unquestioned loyalty and support exhibited by both Paul and Eric to their wives, the onscreen experience of which lingers like the afterglow of savoring Julia’s Boeuf Bourguignon.

Ephron uses TLC as the binder in her recipe for this film, the butter in her beurre blanc. It binds the relationships of Paul and Julia to one another in a simpler, more idealistic period to the relationship shared by Julie and Eric as Julie tries to establish herself under rougher circumstances. It also binds the unspoken relationship of Julie and Julia, the student and the mentor, to the long awaited daughter who never arrived to her mother. In her lifetime Julia Child did not approve of Julie’s blog, thinking it disrespectful, as she might understandably surmise from the vantage point of an octogenarian minimally immersed in the cyber world. Rather than exploit the efforts of the culinary legend, however, Julie & Julia, and it would appear Julie’s blog, fully reinstates the legend in an act of true grace and ironically selfless devotion, as one might encounter from a daughter to her mother.

Julie & Julia is delicious. If you want to know about classic boeuf bourguignon and experience the glow of tasting it, I recommend you see it.