Normally, this is the kind of movie I pass on, especially if it’s directed by the Queen of Estrogen…Nora Ephron. Now before my e-mail and/or comments are filled up with angry messages about me being a misogynist, I always enjoy a good story regardless of who (or which gender) the main character is. Sliding Doors is a “chick movie” I have always loved so don’t even bother making such an accusation. Read further before pressing the Send button. My beef with Ephron is her work being formulaic like Tim Burton or Steven Spielberg but this time, I’d say it’s only half a standard Ephron movie. I did have other motives for seeing J&J which I’ll divulge further down.
Using the same storytelling technique Coppola employed in The Godfather II and Huyck in Best Defense, Ephron tells the dual tales of Julia Child discovering her life’s calling in France after WWII and Julie Powell regaining her voice through Child’s cookbook in NYC a few years back (lots of obligatory post 9/11 imagery).
Child’s story is more compelling. Most Americans over 30 recognize her as that cooking-show host with the funny voice on PBS; incidentally I feel she’s the godmother of the Food Network: Rachel Ray, Alton Brown and Emeril all owe her. More people probably know the Dan Akroyd skit better than her real show The French Chef anyway. But before Julia became the person popular culture immortalized, there was this unusually tall woman bored out of her mind because the wives of embassy personnel didn’t have their own careers. It’s a tired tale from Hollywood yet when it’s about a real person, not an archetype shown every week on a dozen cable channels, you can get more emotionally and/or invested in the protagonist. Seeing more of the Childs’ randy side that Somara told me about from the flick’s literary source, My Life in France, could’ve helped make this more unique.
Powell’s story follows the Ephron template right down to the emotional conflict/resolution with her husband. The only difference being that Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks were too old for the parts. This is a shame because it will give millions of people the wrong impression about the real Julie Powell who was present at our screening. Someone even asked her during the Q&A which parts were true and how much involvement did she have. Julie gave a pretty diplomatic answer saying Ephron made the movie Ephron wanted to make and she felt flattered to be portrayed by Amy Adams. The rest of the Q&A I’m saving for another entry so nothing further on the author here.
Given that half this movie is only direct-to-DVD quality, why did I go? It was at the Alamo Drafthouse and we attended the special $78 per ticket French-cuisine feast. The author showing up was a surprise the theater sprung on everyone after it was sold out. Well, several weeks ago I wrote about Somara and me both forgetting our sixth wedding anniversary. Normally, I am all over July 27 so I decided to spend the money on this as our official celebration for multiple reasons: Somara really wanted to go because she read both books the movie used; her fanaticism about cooking isn’t a secret, I imagine Julia is one of her heroes; and normally we eat pizza, burgers or fried pickles at Alamo not raw oysters, duck in pastry, fish and lobster wrapped in pasta with five different wines. The tricky part was making sure my wife was in the dark until I secured our tickets online the minute they went on sale. How was the food? Fantastic and worth every cent. Imagine eating this well every time you went to the cineplex. We also got to be a part of Alamo Drafthouse history. The Julie & Julia feast is the new record holder for most sold-out feasts at three-plus. Our waiter said a sold-out show is around 75 people. For J&J, they had to raise it to 120. Originally, there was only going to be one feast too. After the owners saw how quickly it filled up, they added a second and then a third and fourth as each were gobbled up in minutes. So what was the old winner? The Simpsons Movie. Doesn’t say anything terrible positive about the American palate, does it?