Julie & Julia

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Nora Ephron adapts Julie Powell's autobiographical book Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen with this Columbia Pictures production starring Amy Adams as an amateur chef who decides to cook every recipe in a cookbook from acclaimed celebrity chef Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) in order to chronicle it in a blog over the course of a year. Streep's Devil Wears Prada co-star Stanley Tucci re-teams with the actress as Child's husband. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Features:
  • cc
  • Secret ingredients: creating Julia & Julia
  • Commentary with writer/director Nora Ephron

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Actress - 2009 (Meryl Streep)

• American Cinema Editors Guild

•     Nominated Best Edited Feature - Comedy or Musical - 2009 (Richard Marks)

• Art Directors Guild

•     Nominated Best Art Direction in a Period Film - 2009

• Boston Society of Film Critics

•     Won Best Actress - 2009 (Meryl Streep)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Nominated Best Actress - 2009 (Meryl Streep)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Won Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Com - 2009 (Meryl Streep)
•     Nominated Best Picture - Comedy or Musical - 2009

• New York Film Critics Circle

•     Won Best Actress - 2009 (Meryl Streep)

• Screen Actors Guild

•     Nominated Best Actress - 2009 (Meryl Streep)

• Writers Guild of America

•     Nominated Best Adapted Screenplay - 2009 (Nora Ephron)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Meryl Streep - Julia Child
       Amy Adams - Julie Powell
       Stanley Tucci - Paul Child
       Chris Messina - Eric Powell
       Linda Emond - Simone Beck
       Helen Carey - Louise Bertholle
       Mary Lynn Rajskub - Sarah
       Jane Lynch - Dorothy McWilliams
       Joan Juliet Buck - Madame Brassart
       Crystsal Noelle - Ernestine
       George Bartenieff - Chef Max Bugnard
       Vanessa Ferlito - Cassie
       Casey Wilson - Regina
       Jillian Bach - Annabelle
       Andrew Garman - John O'Brien
       Michael Brian Dunn - Ivan Cousins
       Remak Ramsay - John McWilliams
       Diane Kagan - Phila McWilliams
       Pamela Holden Stewart - Instructor at Le Cordon Bleu
       Jeff Brooks - Minister
       Frances Sternhagen - Irma Rombauer
       Brooks Ashmanskas - Mr. Misher
       Eric Sheffer Stevens - Tim
       Brian Avers - Garth
       Kacie Sheik - Annette
       Megan Byrne - Woman at the Party
       Deborah Rush - Avis De Voto
       Helen Coxe - Dorothy De Santillana
       Amanda Hesser - Herself
       Maryann Urbano - Dinner Guest
       Simon Jutras - Dinner Guest
       Felicity Jones - Dinner Guest
       Meg Kettell - Simca's Concierge
       Stephen Bogardus - Scott McLeod
       Byron Jennings - Houghton Mifflin Executive
       Kelly Au Coin - Houghton Mifflin Executive
       Richard Bekins - Houghton Mifflin Executive
       Luc Palun - The Chestnut Vendor
       Remy Roubakha - Oyster Man
       Marceline Hugot - Madame Bernheim
       Erin Dilly - Judith Jones
       Robert Emmet Lunney - Bill Koshland
       Tom Galantich - American Ambassador
       Allyn Burrows - Waiter in Paris Cafe
       Julia Prud'homme - Bridge Teacher
       Dimitri Radochevitch - Fish Monger
       Emmanuel Suarez - Baker
       Christelle Cornil - Baker's Wife
       Francoise Lebrun - Baker's Mother
       Teddy Bergman - Cobb Salad Waiter
       Jean - Pierre Becker - Fruit Store Owner
       Mark Wilkins - Butcher
       Jamie Hall - Cheese Guy
       Francesco David - Butcher
       Dianne Dreyer - American Housewife
       Mary Kay Place - Julie's Mother

• Director:

  Nora Ephron

• Producer:

  Nora Ephron, Laurence Mark, Amy Robinson, Eric Steel

• Book Author:

  Julia Child

• Screenwriter:

  Nora Ephron

• Book Author:

  Julie Powell, Alex Prud'homme

• Cinematographer:

  Stephen Goldblatt

• Composer (Music Score):

  Alexandre Desplat

• Editor:

  Richard Marks

• Production Designer:

  Mark Ricker

• Art Director:

  Benjamin John Barraud

• Co-producer:

  Dianne Dreyer

• Associate Producer:

  J.J. Sacha

• Executive Producer:

  Donald J. Lee, Jr., Dana Stevens, Scott Rudin

• Set Decorator:

  Susan Bode-Tyson

• Costume Designer:

  Ann Roth

• Casting:

  Francine Maisler, Kathleen Driscoll-Mohler

• Stunts Coordinator:

  Peter Bucossi

• Unit Production Manager:

  Donald J. Lee, Jr.

• Production Supervisor:

  Erica Kay

REVIEW:

• Everybody needs inspiration. Julie Powell wanted to be a writer, but not until she challenged herself to make every recipe in Julia Child's culinary bible Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year -- and blogged about it -- did she find her voice. Her memoir about that year, Julie & Julia, comes to the big screen thanks to writer/director Nora Ephron, a filmmaker who was in dire need of some inspiration.
  
  The movie stars a pair of formidably talented actresses: Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. Adams plays Powell, an English lit grad who struggles through her stressful government job fielding phone calls from people who are having medical problems because of 9/11. Cooking provides her with her only form of anxiety relief aside from her devoted husband (Chris Messina), who suggests she combine her love of preparing food with her desire to write. He sets her up with a blog, and she begins her quest to perfect beef bourguignon, poached eggs, and aspic -- and to share her journey with the world. As she learns more and more about Julia Child (Streep), a former government employee herself, the beloved chef becomes Julie's personal hero.
  
  Ephron shifts back and forth between Julie's story, and a biopic of Julia Child during the time she and her devoted husband (Stanley Tucci) lived in Paris. During that period, she learned to cook, met her future co-authors, and created the book that would save Julie four decades later.
  
  It will come as a surprise to just about nobody that Meryl Streep is flawless as the distinctively voiced celebrity chef. Streep not only masters Child's unique cadence and idiosyncratic tonal shifts -- elements that made her easy to satirize -- but makes them seem utterly natural. She and Stanley Tucci make for just about the happiest couple imaginable -- supporting, loving, and generous. Their story isn't terribly dramatic -- in fact, the whole film has a noticeable lack of conflict -- but it's so much fun to watch them interact that the whole movie works because of their remarkable charm.
  
  However, Streep and Tucci aren't the only cast members capable of winning an audience's affection. Adams communicates Julie's intense need to accomplish her task with such effortlessness that conventional drama feels like an intrusion -- a fact underscored by the movie's only dull stretch, a 15-minute subplot where Julie's marriage goes through a rough patch. This kind of unapologetic feel-good movie doesn't need a bogus threat to happiness like that -- it's more than enough for us to appreciate how much Julia fills Julie with meaning and purpose.
  
  It's that very meaning and purpose that have been lacking from Nora Ephron's recent work. Bewitched and Lucky Numbers were joyless comedies that lacked her best qualities. But both Julie and Julia turn out to be fabulous muses for Ephron, who has fashioned a script full of gentle wit and affection, and directed it with warmth and confidence. This is a slight movie, to be sure, but it's a loving one made with care and purpose. It's not revolutionary like Julia Child's book, but it's as enjoyable as a souffle. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi